Why Him?
by Dis Be A Pen Name
Summary: Kakashi knew he should have said something to begin with, but he couldn't bring himself to say a word. He was too weak to argue as his friend stared down at the blood stained fabric of his glove. "Damn it, Kakashi, you said you were fine!"
1. You feeling Alright?

It all started this morning...

He had woken up that morning with a sharp pain to his skull, and a metalic taste over his tongue. At first, Kakashi dismissed this as simply biting his cheek or something in his sleep, and maybe the time he had been staying up sorting through papers and books could have given him the headache. But he was quick to find out other wise at he stood up and found his knees almost too weak to hold him up, all it took was a round of harsh coughs to loose what little balance he seemed to have and grab the edge of the table to support himself.

There was that taste again, worse now after he settled the fit of coughs. It was then he rushed to his bathroom and pulled his mask down to check. Blood was thickly washed over his mouth to the point where even his teeth were crimson. What worried him more was the fact that he couldn't feel any sort of sore or wound where the blood could have come from. With another fit of harsh, wet coughs, he slapped a hand over his mouth to suppress them as best he could. And there he saw, no more denying it now, the blood that stained his paler than usual skin.

On a different sort of day, he would have crawled back to his bed and slept in. But unfortunately he and his team had a mission they had to leave for today. He couldn't just let them handle it on their own, right? Right. So with a heavy sigh, which led to a sharp pain in his chest, he rinsed out his mouth, washed off the blood from his palm, and got himself dressed.

It wasn't like he walked very far from his own front door before he was confronted by Yamato, who he knew would be on the mission as well.

"Tenzō," he greeted, trying to act as he usually did despite the chills that came to him. For pete sake, he was sweating and at the same time he wanted to find himself a parka or something to get some warmth back. "I take it Naruto, Sakura, and Sai are all waiting at the gate?"

Of course, Yamato shrugged a little. "We were waiting for you as usual. But Sai thought that one of us should go and find you."

It didn't surprise him that Sai would be the one to find it unusual for a jonin to be so late, he hadn't worked with Kakashi as long as Naruto or Sakura, or even Yamato, had. Still, it wasn't like the usual tardiness. Kakashi didn't want to laugh about it so much as he usually did. In fact, he never felt so disconnected like now.

"Hey, did you even hear me?"

Wait, Yamato was talking? "Um.. sorry, what was that?" He said with a forced chuckle, damn it hurt to laugh... literally.

"I asked you if something was wrong," Tenzō repeated.

"Geh... yeah... I'm fine..." With a relaxed look, though it seemed to present the dark circles he had more so than he would have wanted, he walked past him. "Let's just get through this mission."

"... right..." Was Yamato's unconvinced reply as they both walked to the gate.

It was there the three were waiting. Not surprisingly, Naruto was bouncing on his heels with eagerness, Sakura was pinching the bridge of her nose, and Sai just watched with that same blank face. As soon as they noticed that Yamato and Kakashi arrived, they straightened a little and greeted them.

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto said in a sort of cheer, excited to get outside after a couple weeks without a mission.

And so they were off to their mission. What was it again? Kakashi realized he was having a hard time remembering it. It was also at the same time he found that he was finding it difficult reconizing the same path he had walked down countless times before, so he let himself fall back to the end of the group and followed with swaying vision and a pounding head.

_What is wrong with me today?_ He wondered. It wasn't even long before he was finding it hard to breathe, and he couldn't take deep breaths because it hurt his rib cage to do so. They weren't even moving that fast, this should be easy for him but yet it wasn't. What used to be a couple paces behind the group turned to twenty.

It was at some point the group stopped all together and looked back to him with curiousity. Sakura asked, "Kakashi-Sensei, are you feeling alright?"

_No..._ "Yeah, I'll be just fine."

"Maybe you need to rest," Sai said.

Of course, he couldn't even begin to hope that Yamato would blow it off and decide to keep moving. He wasn't like that, no matter how he liked to seem so much more focused on a mission than the team. "Really, Kakashi, what's wrong?"

"Honestly, I'm okay-." he was cut off by a harsh coughing fit that he couldn't keep back. It was easily enough to send a dizzying pain to his chest as he fell down to his knees. It was in a quick motion that he threw his mask down and slapped his hand over his mouth to cough into it instead. And for a moment, that was all he seemed to notice, the wet sound of his coughing and that flaring pain getting worse with each shakey breath. He didn't even seem to realize that Tenzō was kneeling in front of him with consern on his face.

Thankfully he was able to hold off the rest of the fit before Yamato grabbed his wrist. "Let me see," he said seriously. Of course, he was too weak to argue as his hand was peeled off his face and his friend stared down at the blood stained fabric of his glove. "Damn it, Kakashi, you said you were fine!" Though he was loud, there was still some sort of harshness that only showed he only wished that Kakashi said something earlier. Maybe he could have stayed home to rest if he had.

Naruto simply stood there with a raised eyebrow, hardly understanding what just happened. Heck, if this was bad enough where Kakashi pulled down his mask, he knew he should be worried. Still... there was that old curiousity about his Sensei's face that nagged at him too. And with Yamato kneeling in front of him like he was, he couldn't see anything.

Sakura didn't seemed to care about Yamato's body blocking Kakashi's face, she simply walked forward. She was just worried now. What was wrong with her Sensei? When she found herself standing beside Yamato, she could see it, the dark stain on Kakashi's glove. She blinked before she realized what the stain was. "Let me help."

"Sakura," Yamato said shaking his head, "I know you're conserned, but we need to get Kakashi back to the Leaf. And when we get back, I need you to take him straight to the hospital, I'll inform Tsunade what happened and hopefully she'll send another Team on the mission."

She nodded, staring down at her teacher, who kept his head down. "Alright."

With that, Yamato pulled Kakashi up and pulled one of his arms over his shoulder to keep him from falling over. Kakashi, working to overcome the unsteady vision and his trembling fingers, pulled his mask back up over his face and gave into the weakness. His arm going slack and his head falling as darkness overcame him.

The walk back was quiet, no one spoke a word, nor could they. What was there to say?


	2. The Hospital, Hokage, Library and Back

Sakura watched as medics saw right to Kakashi, leaving her back in the Emergency Room. Beside her stood Naruto, who seemed to realize now just how serious this might actually be. What could have caused this? Or how? These were answers that needed to be found and soon. Not only that, but how quickly can they fix the problem? If they could that is.

One of the medics stopped and turned back to her, regarding her with a nod. "Maybe you should come with us, we might need your assistance."

She nodded, "Alright."

Of course, Naruto looked from one to the other before asking with indifference, "What can I do?"

Sure she expected him to want to be involved, but that didn't mean she thought of a chore for him to go on. If he were to remain out of her hair for a while so she could see to their Sensei, she would have to come up with something fast. "Naruto, maybe you can go and find some books at the library about diseases and poisons and bring them over so I can see if I can find out what Kakashi-Sensei has."

Naruto nodded. "Okay, no problem. I'll have those books here in no time!" And with that he rushed out.

The medic beside her sighed heavily, "You don't really need those books, do you?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, I already know what there is to know, but it's best to keep Naruto busy." She turned around and walked down the hall where they took Kakashi. "Let's go."

-0-0-0-

Yamato took a breath before stepping into Tsunade's office, which could have easily caught her off guard. Especially so since he hadn't had time to send a message to let them know that they didn't even get far before turning back.

Confused, Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him, her fingers woven up in front of her. "Yamato? I thought you were on your mission. Why are you back?"

"I'm sorry I didn't have time to alert you before my arrival," he said carefully, unwilling to deal with her if she was in a bad mood, "but an issue came up in my team and we had to return."

"An issue," she seemed to ponder this breifly, "like what?"

"We hadn't gone very far before Kakashi collapsed." He explained. "I checked and found he was coughing up blood. I didn't want to risk a life before we even started the mission, so we returned to have him seen to."

The 5th Hokage breathed slowly and closed her eyes a moment. "Is Sakura with him?"

"Yes," he answered, "I sent her and Naruto to bring Kakashi to the hospital while I report to you."

"And Sai?"

"I didn't give him any instruction in particular, I thought he would follow the others."

It seemed the tention was growing. At this rate, it would be like lighting a fire in a helium tank, Tsunade would be bound to explode. If he were to leave without any lasting injury, he would have to choose his next words very carefully.

"My Lady, you said it yourself, this mission could easily require a five man squad, and with Kakashi out of the question, I don't think we can send this team out at all."

Yamato sighed quietly with relief as Shizune took the words right out of his mouth. Thankfully she was conserned about Naruto being in danger, so he knew she might jump in at some time to tell her how the mission could put him in some sort of danger like the knucklehead couldn't handle it.

The stress could easily be seen on Tsunade's face, the crinkles of skin on her nose as her hand clenched to a fist. Even if Yamato could run, he knew it would be a death wish. Running basically mention you were admitting that you were scared, and to that woman it meant she could pumble you. Or at least it seems that way sometimes. Running in this case wasn't an option.

"Although I hate to agree, Shizune's right," she said slowly, the pissed off look on her face being forced back a little. "Yamato, your team will be called off from this mission and I'll gather another one up to take your place. If I know Sakura, she won't want to leave her teacher behind. Neither would Naruto. I'll need you to keep an eye on those two while Kakashi's in the hospital."

"Yes, my Lady." He said with a nod.

"Go, I'll be at the hospital shortly to check in." She said, and with that, Yamato left; his thoughts on how things were going for the others.

-0-0-0-

At the library, Naruto stared at the bookshelves blankly. What on earth did Sakura even want him to grab? Potions? Drugs? It was one of those times when you have an idea to go somewhere to do something, then as soon as you got there you forget why the hell you're even there. Especially since he rushed.

And Naruto wasn't a regular at the library since he was a little kid, and even then it was strictly the comic rack towards the front desk.

"Do you need some help?"

The voice that asked it caught him more off guard than the question itself. Beside him stood Sai, the library regular, with his attempted casual smile.

"Sai! Are you-!"

"I think you should lower your voice," Sai warned. "This is a library."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and glared at him. But this time instead of yelling, his voice was lowered, "Are you even conserned about Kakashi-Sensei whatsoever? And what's with the smile at a time like this?"

Clearly this confused the apparently emotionless teammate, who tried to explain himself. "I read in a book that smiling to someone when they're stressed will help them relax."

This is clearly what Naruto expected from him. Some sort of rediculous way to draw himself closer to the rest of the team that he read would work in one of those books he's always digging up around this place. "Sai, you can't lighten everything up with a smile, that's just not going to happen. Everyone's stressed for a reason."

"So why are you here?" Sai asked.

"Why are _you_ here?" Naruto asked back.

A book that Sai was holding tilted a little so Naruto could see the gray cover. A big book on different illnesses and poisons. That was what Sakura wanted, right? Yeah. "I was going to see if I can find out what's wrong."

This caught him off guard. He had been expecting to find that Sai was reading about emotions and stuff like that, when really the guy was trying to help as well. Naruto got rid of the glare and continued to stare at the cover for another moment before looking back at Sai. "Did you find anything?"

His teammate nodded and flipped the book open to some page with a diagram of lungs. "I found out that if a person is coughing up blood then the condition can be considered serious. But I'm not entirely sure if what he's expelling is completely blood or bloody mucus."

"Mucus...?" Naruto stared at him like he had three heads or something. This is just disturbing... But he shook that off and got back to the matter at hand. "Could you check that book out so I can bring it to Sakura?"

Sai nodded. "Of course."

With that they checked out the book and were on their way to the hospital again.


	3. Diagnosis

He was laying motionless on the cot. They had stripped him down so better look at him. At least that how it looked when Sakura walked in. They at least laid a cloth over his face, as if they assumed he would know if they were sneaking peaks at his face. Usually that thought would make her laugh, but right now wasn't the time for it. Besides, she would have to take that cloth off eventually, so why bother at this point?

It was then she spotted something, a long red scratch on his side. And the skin around it with weaving dark lines branching off and away that shouldn't be there. When could that have been made?

"Sakura, good to see you've come in." One of the medics greeted. "Care to give us a hand?"

She nodded. "Yeah." With that, she stepped over and stood beside the cot, staring down at the scratch. "What have you found out so far?"

"Nothing yet, we were just getting started," another answered. "Although, what seems to be obvious is that he's got a high fever, and we've heard about the coughing up blood issue."

"Maybe he just caught that bug going around?" Someone guessed. "My brother got those same symptoms last week and recovered recently."

"Your brother was coughing up blood?" Sakura asked.

He shook his head. "No, but the coughing tore the back of his throat, it's possible that the same happened here."

It seemed anything could be the case. And it was best not to rule any possibility out. Not until there was more information gathered. And with that, they spent the next hour evaluating his condition and running tests. But as it seemed, no sort of illness seemed to fit the symptoms. Of course it could have easily been the flu if it wasn't for the fact that he wasn't coughing up mucus.

After the long evaluation, they moved Kakashi into a different room, and Sakura went to sit there with him while she thought over what the hell he could have come down with. At least she kept the notes so she could better keep track of it all.

So he has a fever, which explains the shivering earlier that she noticed. So his body's working, that's what it tells her. It's not like that's a bad thing, and she knows it from listening to Tsunade. Best to let him sweat that out. Normally for a parent when they see their child with a fever, they want to lower the fever as soon as possible when really it's only making things worse.

Harsh coughing with blood. So it's effecting the lungs. During the examination, the tear was a lot worse, like something was clawing at his throat or something. She did what she could, finding that soon after it just started coming back again. Strange how that was.

Sure those were easy to explain, but there was still one thing she couldn't explain. The dark lines that were around that cut. Of course the other medics dismissed it for some weird bruise, which didn't make a lick of sense in her mind, and she doubted that was the case.

That must be the key to it all, she realized. Right away, Sakura stood up and paced over to Kakashi's cot to get a better look at the strange lines and the scratch. It was then she spotted something similar near his neck, and another on his arm. She then turned him over and found a few more on his back; a red scratch with those black weaving lines branching away.

She bit her lip before taking a syringe out and drawing a little blood around one of the scratches, where she was startled to find it discolored a near black. "What is this?"

And that's when she got an idea, and rushed to the door to get some water, when as soon as she opened the door, she ran right into Tsunade. Sakura stepped back with a hand on her nose while the Hokage simply stared at her.

"My Lady, I..." She trailed off as she let her hand fall from her nose.

Tsunade looked form her and over to the bed. "What did the medical team find?"

"Nothing apparently," she answered, "but I did." She held up the syringe full of Kakashi's discolored blood. When this clearly became something of interest to the older woman, she continued. "It seems like there's some sort of toxin that's leaking into the blood around a bunch of scratches. I don't know how they got there though, or what it is yet."

Upon hearing this, the woman sighed and took the needle from Sakura's hand. Although she didn't want to really believe it, she knew what it was. And judging from the sample alone, they were short on time as it was. "You did the right thing checking the scratches." She told her. "And thankfully I was just coming in. I know what this is."

Sakura seemed ready to jump on her toes as he wrists pinned to her chest. "What is it?"

"It's a toxin I've seen before," she told her. "Naturally it's found on in the petals of a certain blossom tree around here, but someone can crush the flowers to extract the poison. It is only effective in two ways, swallowing it, and injection. Though swallowing work in a painful mannor, injecting it will cause it to pool up and delay it's acting time. If it's the case, someone could be injected and not begin to feel the effects weeks later. And by the time they do, the toxin has gotten into the blood stream and creating flu-like symptoms. Left unchecked, it will put the body in shock and everything will shut down."

"So Kakashi-Sensei..." Sakura looked down as her hands balled into fists. "How much time do we have?"

"Hardly enough. But hopefully we can buy ourselves some time by extracting as much of the toxin as we can to make an antidote." Tsunade answered. "Get a couple bowls of water and get a couple of medics to stand by. I'll see to that he's ready."

Sakura nodded before running out to get the water and find a couple of medics, leaving Tsunade alone in the room. She stepped over to the cot where Kakashi laid still on his stomach, his face turned side ways. The scratches Sakura had told her about were there, clear as day. It seems even a scratch would easily be enough to bring these effects on him. So why didn't he go to the hospital as soon as the black lines were beginning to show? Did he think they were some odd bruises as well? He couldn't be that stupid, right?

With care, she turned him over again and wiped a trail of blood off of the corner of his mouth. Now unlike the blood closer to the scratches, the blood he was coughing up was still crimson and not near black. There was still a little time left, maybe some more than what she first thought. Maybe.

It was then Kakashi jolted with a sudden fit of coughs, and, unable to sit up and pull a hand over his mouth, Tsunade had to turn him on his side until he settled again. Obviously, he was too far gone to notice the lacking of a mask or a shirt, but he still was reacting to the air. His skin was littered with goosebumps and small shivers brought him to huddle closer. Like he were standing outside in the middle of winter with only a tee shirt, his body, convinced it was going through hypothermia due to a rise in normal temperature, was doing what it could to get warmth and retain it. And even though he was obviously cold, his skin was glistened with sweat.

Turning him over on his back again, she caught sight of another trail of blood leaking down his cheek, but darker than usual. It seemed she had even less time than that. Sakura would have to hurry.


	4. Extraction

Sakura was rushing now, not bothering to watch where she was going. If anyone was in her way then they would just have to step aside because she couldn't waste a second.

SMACK!

Landing on her back, she found herself looking up at Naruto, who held his hand out to help her to her feet. Clearly he was nervous about doing so, maybe because he thought that she might crush it. No. There would be time for that later. But now she had to hurry.

"Sakura, what's wrong? Where are you-?"

"Not now!" Sakura inturrupted. "Do me a favor and tell a couple meics to stand by in Kakashi's room, and hurry up!"

"What the-?" He turned as she rushed past so he could follow her. "What's wrong with Kakashi-Sensei?"

"Just do it, you idiot!" She yelled without looking over her shoulder. And so left him with the book she asked for in one and and a dumb look on his face while Sai went on ahead and found a couple of medics. Well, at least someone wasn't completely useless around here.

It was back in Kakashi's room that hell was starting to break loose. Naruto was shoving at the two medics so he could get closer to the cot, while Sai was holding him by the shirt collar to keep him from getting too close. And Tsunade seemed very much ready to kick the two out as Sakura ran in with the two metal bowls of water, which she quickly placed down. Hands free of that, she shoved Naruto out the door, followed by Sai who simply walked out.

"Sai!" Naruto glared at him with arms crossed. That jerk, why was doing this? He didn't know the first thing about concern, did he? Of course not! "What gives?"

"I'm only trying to help." Sai stated. "When a friend is panicking, it's best to remove them from the situation before things get out of hand. I-."

"You read it in a book..." Naruto grumbled. "I can handle myself, so don't get in my way!" Now he would have stamped right back into the room, but he quickly discovered that Sakura locked the door on him. Great. Just great.

Inside the room, Sakura sighed heavily before standing beside Tsunade. "So we extract the toxin with the water?"

"Exactly," Tsunade answered. "You two, hold him down! Don't let him move around or it will push the poison."

The two doctors were quick to follow orders, one pressing down on Kakashi's shoulders, the other pinning down his legs. It would be as good as they could do with two men, and the poison could be extracted much faster with two people. But the two knew all too well that having Naruto in here would be disasterous if anything. Should this fail...

In perfect sync, both medical ninja created orbs of water that floated close to their palms from the bowls, and then proceeded to press the orbs to Kakashi's skin. Slowly, the water sunk in, and they begun to pull it out on the other side, a mix of black fluid swirling around. But it wasn't like this was a cake walk or something, of course he struggled and wriggled weakly against the medics' holds, a couple times he even cried out in pain before he was too weak to fight back anymore. At that point, they were almost done with what they could do.

It was what they couldn't pull out that worried Sakura. And although she could easily notice the faded lines and some gone completely, she knew he wasn't out of the woods just yet. "So now we make an antidote?"

Tsunade shook her head. "There isn't one that we could make fast enough. There are things to dull the pain, but the antidote requires a root that must be dried and turned to a powder. That grows in the Land of Water, so we can't just march over and take it, it also is very difficult to find. Even when you find it, drying it must be done correctly or it turns into a better beer than a medicine. Hung upside down and in the sun for a couple of weeks until all the moister is gone, too soon and the toxins will still be present. Even then, you need to turn it into powder and then actually make the antidote. We haven't got the time to ask permission onto their land and look, or to dry it."

"So we just leave him?" She wondered. "And he'll die soon...?"

"Not nessesarily." Tsunade assured. "We've hopefully extracted enough of the toxin to make the rest nonlethal. It will require some watching to make sure his condition doesn't worsen, and if it does, we can see the black veins where the toxin is being pumped so we can pull it out. Otherwise, his body should be able to fight off the rest of it."

"And he'll be alright?" Sakura was sure that what she heard was a promise that he'll bounce back like he always does.

"Most likely," The older repeated. "But the next few weeks will be hell for him. In my experience, there are eight side effects that a smaller dosage can cause." She then held up her hand and counted each off as she said them. "High fever, weakness, hallucinations, muscle spasms, recognition, emotions taken to the extreme, insomnia, and sometimes insanity. Though none of these tend to last, they can bring much confusion and panic while they are at large."

If the possibility of the poison still being enough to kill her teacher wasn't bad enough, the thought of what his recovery would be like seemed completely horrible. She looked down at him, his uncovered face, his eyes half open and unfocused. Did he hear Tsunade, she wondered. Probably not. Sakura breathed a heavy sigh and pulled the blanket over him up to his cheekbones. It seemed like the best she could do for him at the moment.

Correction, it was all she could do for him at the moment.

"When can I let Naruto in?" Sakura asked.

"Give him some time to rest," Tsunade told her with a hand on her shoulder. "When he's beginning to act like his old self again, then you can let the knucklehead in."

"And what about Captain Yamato? And Sai?" She even knew just by the missions she saw them on they he and Yamato were friends at least.

"They'll be just fine, just don't let someone in if they can't keep quiet in a hospital room or don't understand the fact that whoever's here needs to be shown some patients and care." And with that, Tsunade was walking towards the door. "I'll keep Naruto busy on missions for the time being, so I'm looking to you to look after Kakashi. I'll check in when I can."

"Yes, My Lady." Sakura responded in a respectful tone as the Hokage opened the slide door and walked out.

Even just as the woman left, she could hear her through the door shout, "Naruto! Come with me." before shutting the door behind her. It was footsteps from there until they faded. Then another set of footsteps towards the door. It opened as Sai walked in. The medics were just leaving at this point with the poison deluted water.

"How is he?" Sai asked.

Sakura smiled a little. "Lady Tsunade thinks he should recover, but it's going to be difficult from the sound of it."

He nodded, putting up a shy smile. "I heard you through the door, it sounds pretty serious. Can I help in any way?"

"Yeah, maybe you can." Sakura said. "It seems this was done by someone on purpose, and I'm thinking that if someone learns that this failed, then they might attempt to kill him again."

"You didn't tell the Hokage this," Sai noted.

"I guess there was just a lot on my mind," she told him, "and I sort of skipped telling her about my hunch. I will when I have the chance though."

"And how can I help this way?"

"If you can, then you can stand watch, I'll be here regardless, but just in case if I need the help should someone actually try and attack." She explained. "I can't ask Naruto because he might start putting emotions over real protection, sure he's loyal, but he can be pretty stupid."

"I understand," Sai said with a fade of that smile. "You want me, the emotionless one, to stand watch."

"When you put it that way, it sounds kind of mean."

"Sakura, it's fine. I'll do what I can to help, and this is helping after all." His smile returned as quickly as it fell. "Besides, Naruto is an idiot and would get in the way."

She bit back a bit of frustration towards that last comment and sighed heavily. Later. She could pumble those two later.


	5. They're coming

It was late that night, rain pattered down on the glass of the window, a steady droning noise that slowly faded to the background. Sakura sat, half awake, in a chair beside the cot Kakashi laid in. Her mind went over the side effects, what they meant, over and over. It seemed to drone in her thoughts. Unending.

"They're coming! They're coming!"

This snapped her to attention as she looked overing to Kakashi, who was sitting up with his hand clutching the nightstand. His eyes wide and chest heaving. It had to be one of the symptoms. Hallucinations_... or he's already lost it... _But unwilling to let him continue screaming like this, and assuming that he couldn't actually see her, she stepped over and lightly touchesd his shoulder, hoping to calm him down.

"It's alright. No one's here. You're fine." She said quietly.

"Rin... They come to take Rin..." He continued on. That's when he started to laugh, seemingly calm at first, but then it turned fairly disturbing. "Rocks will fall! They will crush us all! Obito! Blood everywhere!" Wait... was he... crying?

She came to her conclusion that it was indeed insanity, and figured that whatever the hell he was yammering on about was in some weird day dream. She knew fairly well that he had been on missions before, and so where he got these ideas wasn't so much a mystery- if only she actually knew-, but it was simply the context that was disturbing. Not surprising. But surely something she should be concerned about.

"Where's Rin? Where is she?" He kept yammering on. And even though Sakura did what she could to quiet him down without hurting him, she was running out of options. It was when he almost jumped out of bed that she resorted to actually getting rough.

She shoved Kakashi back down so he was on his back, and he just stared up at her, eyes wide as moons. He didn't say anything thing at first. He just laid there with at deer-in-the-headlights-kicked-puppy look, which in a sense was down right weird for him. Sakura sighed heavily and said sharply, "Rin is fine. There are no rocks, no blood, no one coming. You're fine." Maybe she was being a little harsh, but if this carried on, how long would it be until he actually managed to run out the door?

It was then it looked like some form of reconization came to his face. But as quickly as it came, it was replaced with that wide eyed fear. "They're coming!"

Sakura had to remind herself that he was only acting this way because of the side effects and had no real reason to hit him. Why couldn't he just go back to sleep or something? But then again, it was easier to know his condition awake. Besides, as Tsunade said, he could be going through insomnia.

-0-0-0-

"I'll come back for you after I'm through."

He tried to talk, but what came out only got muffled into the cloth that was shoved in his mouth as the door slammed shut in front of him. So he was left him all alone, in a supply closet, in the dark, and with some guy running around looking JUST LIKE HIM. And judging by what he said, he had to get to Kakashi's room before his impersonator did and warn Sakura.

Growling through his teeth, he proceeded to slam himself against the door.

-0-0-0-

Sakura looked up as Yamato walked into the room. But she noticed something was wrong, he seemed in a hurry. "Sakura, we need to move Kakashi! There's an intruder running around the hospital who transformed into me to get to you!"

At first, she could only blink in confusion. Then she nodded. "Alright. Where to?"

"I know a place we can hide him until the imposter is caught." He said, taking a breath. "Come on, before he actually finds the room."

Then she noticed something. "Captain Yamato, you're arm's bleeding."

"Just a scratch, there isn't time." Yamato told her. "Now let's hurry. Open the door; I got Kakashi."

She nodded and paced to the door while Yamato scooped his squirming friend up and threw him over his shoulder. When he was sure that Kakashi wouldn't fall off and hit the floor face first, like a concussion would help his condition, they rushed out of the room. Sakura followed Yamato down the hall until they came to an empty surgery room with the lights shut off.

"We'll hide here for now." Yamato breathed, lying Kakashi down against the wall.

Said man kicked away and held his wrists over his face, like he was protecting himself maybe?

"I'll find the intruder," Sakura said, and rushed out the door. Of course, she made the mistake of running full force, because she came slamming into the intruder, who was also running, and fell over with a sharp pain in her ankle. It didn't take a genius to figure out she sprained it. But she couldn't get up, and was forced to kick away from the man.

"Sakura, I-."

"No, I know you're lying so don't even try to tell me anything!" Sakura snapped as she pulled out a kunai. "I won't listen."

Fake Yamato took a step forward, which she scooted back a little further. "So the imposter got to you first... where's Kakashi?"

"Safe, away from you!" She said.

"Safe?" He challanged. "You don't understand, that's the imposter you left him with, I'm the real one!"

"Then prove it! Do something only he can do." Sakura said sharply.

"If you insist." Fake Yamato sighed before making a wooden mallet out of his hand. "No matter how good the tranform jutsu, you can't immitate wood style."

So it seems. And that was really Yamato. "So that means..."

"We need to hurry!" Before Sakura had a chance to object, he got his hand back to normal before picking her up and running down the hall. "Where did you hide him?"

"In a surgery room, it's the one with the lights off." She answered, gripping onto Yamato's shoulder out of fear of falling and being tripped over. "At the end of the hall."

-0-0-0-

"And now, I finish what I started."

Kakashi watched with panic as this stranger pulled a katana out and studied the blade a moment. But just as he was about to hack him in two, Kakashi jumped out of the way, but he couldn't move from there, he was losing his fight.

_SHIINK_

Pain... With tears clouding his eyes, he looked up at his opponate and grabbed his wrist.

"You should die already, make my job easier."

All he could do was glare as his vision was overtaken in white light.

-0-0-0-

"AHHHH!"

Sakura looked up at Yamato, who heard the scream as well. Kakashi. What happened? Was he okay? And did the imposter make a move?

They came to a hault at the doorway, where they could see an incapasitated Yamato phony laying under the pale light with burns on his whole right arm. And then the imposter disappeared in a puff of smoke. A shadow clone?

And Kakashi was huddled up in the corner. It took another second to realize that he was holding a sword by the blade, whose edge was lodged into his shoulder. Thankfully, Yamato was nice enough to make a crutch for Sakura to limp on as she scrambled over and fell down, the wooden stick fell with a clatter that further startled her already delusional Sensei.

She reached to remove the blade, but he shunk away from her hand. It took another five minutes of coaxing before she was able to carefully pull the blade out. Then right away she was trying to heal his shoulder, which is difficult when he keeps trying to squirm away.

"Rin..." Sakura heard him murmur.

"Why is it that he keeps saying Rin?" She asked Yamato, who simply shrugged the question and played the fool.

"I dunno. You could ask him when he's actually going to understand you."

Although it sounded mean, she knew it was true. Talking to him in an out of sorts mood was like talking to a wall. Though the reasons were because he was lost in thought. This time he's just... lost.


	6. With Morning Light

That next morning, the clouds were just starting to break, and a heavy fog settled over the village. Back in Kakashi's room, Sakura yawned as the dawn light streamed in the window, the floor dappled between it and shadows of leaves from a tree outside. It seemed that she in fact managed to doze an hour or so between the fits in the middle of the night her Sensei went through.

And speaking of which, Kakashi at some point seemed to fall asleep, or something akin to it. He was laying on his side turned towards the window, his knees drawn close to his chest and arms tucked in. Although his eyes appeared to be shut, she also included the idea that his eyelashes just covered a small crack that wasn't closed.

For the first time after leaving the village for the mission, everything seemed… peaceful. No fear. No insanity. Just a soft air of calm that breathed a sigh of relief on her mind. It felt like for once she could take the small opportunity to lay back and catch as much sleep as she could.

It didn't feel very long to her before the door opened, and Tsunade walked in. Although Sakura was tempted to jump up and greet her, she relaxed and faked sleep on her chair as she walked the Hokage walk across the room with a blanket on her arm. She glanced at Sakura for a moment before a small hint of a smile twitched the corners of her lips, and she laid the white blanket over her pupil.

"Yamato already told me," the older woman said quietly. "Just rest for now, Sakura, I'll still be here when you wake up."

And with that she realized that Tsunade was well aware that she was listening. But instead of embarrassment, or stubbornness, she felt relieved. So she shut her eyes fully and succumbed to her exhaustion.

Tsunade, after deciding that Sakura had finally fallen asleep, paced over to the cot and sat on the edge of it. Kakashi fidgeted a little, but overall didn't move. And in the moment of silence, she thought about Yamato's report.

According to him, an intruder disgusted as him lured Sakura into taking Kakashi to a dark room. Sakura left to find who she thought was the real intruder, but found the real Yamato. They rushed back to find the impostor incapasitated on the ground and Kakashi huddled up in the corner with a sword lodged in his shoulder. The intruder vanished in a puff of smoke, which Yamato thought meant that he was a shadow clone, but the sword didn't and Sakura had to remove it. He even ventured to guess, based on the burned arm, that Kakashi might have actually been able to defend himself by electricuting him.

And there was also an inspection of the blade that Kakashi was attacked with, seeing as one can figure out the owner sometimes by studying a weapon. The quality, the overall purpose of it. It all adds up to the fighting style of the opponate and also can make it easier to track them. This one appeared to be the second sword of a duel set, because the handle was half of what one would be. But aside from that, the only thing distinguisable about it was the blood that hadn't been washed off yet.

And there was what Yamato told her that he was rambling about. This Rin. It didn't talk a genius, just someone who was around at the time, to know he was going on about a past teammate. It did seem that recognition was occuring.

"no..."

She blinked as she heard the small word under Kakashi's breath. So he wasn't asleep after all. Not surprising, maybe the fever was keeping him up. She lightly laid a hand on his arm, and watched him gather himself into a tighter ball. Finding words of assurance were difficult, but she managed. "I know everything is confusing at the moment, but you need to get better; your team needs you, Kakashi."

If he did hear her, he obviously wasn't going to react. So she stood back up and continued to check what was needed to be checked before standing at the window for a while.

With Naruto sent away, that was one less issue to worry about. It wasn't like Tsunade put much thought into it either. It was just look at the list, pick the first mission she could find that would take him some time, and sent him off with Kiba and Shino. No thought whatsoever, and she was beginning to think that she'd be bound to hear the complaints when they got back.

-0-0-0-

Yamato sat down beside Sai, who was on a bench painting something as usual.

"Hey Sai," he said with general grogginess. Getting your ass handed over to you, getting locked in a closet, then having to run around the village the next morning to find the Hokage who wasn't in her office, can be tiring to say the least. But before he was even going to consider going home to sleep, he needed Sai to explain something. Sakura told him last night that Sai was suppose to be standing watch, so why didn't he step in at all or even show up anywhere?

"Oh hi, Captain Yamato." He said, pausing on his painting to smile in his attempted casual way. "How are you?"

"Fine." Yamato answered. "I need to ask you something."

"And what might that be?" Sai wondered, putting down the painting all together.

"Sakura tells me you were suppose to stand watch," Yamato said, "but when I arrived, someone transformed into me and tried to kill Kakashi. If you were there, I would expect you would have found him and at least chase him off, but you weren't even there to begin with."

The younger blinked his dark eyes, knowing exactly what he was getting at. "I was there, Yamato, don't you remember? You told me there was someone suspitious standing outside, so I went outside and searched the area."

So that sneaky bastard used his disguise to get rid of Sai too? "I see. Sai, that wasn't me you were listening to, it was the intruder."

"Oh." He looked down. "Well that is possible. What happened?"

"You didn't miss too much except for the intruder was really a shadow clone." Yamato said. "And the shadow clone slashed Kakashi's shoulder before we showed up. It seems that he had just enough of himself to electricute my impersonator." Yamato explained. "Aside from that, I had to break out of a supply closet and Sakura sprained her ankle."

"Sakura? Is she alright?" Sai asked.

"Yeah, she's fine. I left her back in Kakashi's room with her trying to heal her ankle with medical jutsu." Yamato told him. "And considering how good a medic she is, I'm sure she can handle something as little as a sprain."

"I do suppose you're right." Sai smiled, and then he picked up his painting and continued it. Although not genuinely interested in what he was painting, he watched as the street in front of them was starting to take shape in his picture. It didn't seem like every painting of Sai's what just some big abstract.


	7. Medication

Sakura woke to a sudden thump, and sat up in her seat to see Tsunade pinning Kakashi down to the floor with a syringe in her other hand. Now to get a grasp on the situation, Kakashi looked scared out of his mind and kept looking at the long needle, and Tsunade might as well be growling. Actually, Sakura could have sworn she was, very lowly.

"Lady Tsunade? What are you doing?" She asked, reaching for the crutch Yamato gave her last night.

Tsunade glanced up only for a moment. "I trying to give him some medication! But he's resisting!" Damn she sounded impatient.

"Can't we just skip the medicine?" Sakura pulled the blanket off her lap and stood, using the crutch to keep off her sprained ankle. "It's obvious he's not going to make it easy for you."

"Skipping it would mean we would have to tackle him everytime something were to startle him," the older explained through her teeth, "this is for his safety and ours."

Although it was clear that she had a point, Sakura still didn't want to face the idea that her Sensei was completely insane. There had to be something, some form of common sense floating around that he could grasp. No one could be this far gone.

And then, too fast for her to grasp right away, Kakashi kicked Tsunade off and bolted out the door. Somehow she felt the need to mentally insert a mad laugh into it to truly make it make sense. But because Sakura couldn't run, she hobbled down the hall to catch up while Tsunade took a moment rubbing her chest where she had been kicked. Before she could even catch him though, it seemed Yamato had stepped in his way.

Kakashi seemed to take a couple steps back upon seeing Yamato, that freaked out face coming back. Did he think that the intruder disguised as Yamato was really him? And did that mean he didn't trust him because of it? It sure looked that way.

But Yamato, oblivious as ever, stepped towards him with palms out in the universal calm-down-you-lunitic gesture. "Hey, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you."

To be honest, approaching him might not have been the best of ideas. Even though Kakashi continued to back away, he seemed to look more and more worried and panicked. Sakura would have to say something, right? So she stepped in. "Captain Yamato, I think you should leave him to me."

"But he was just about to..." Yamato trailed off.

"Look, I know it might not look it, but I can handle this." Sakura assured, and so Yamato nodded and took a few steps away. With him keeping his distance, she walked over to Kakashi and lightly laid a hand on his feverish shoulder. "It's alright. We're trying to help, you're okay."

Something about what she said might have helped, or maybe it was just her, because Kakashi slowly calmed down. Or something akin to that. He wasn't about to run off. So with that, she led him back to the room, with a quick glance back at Yamato that told him not to follow, and sat him down on the cot.

"Alright, got him." Sakura said as Tsunade stood up and nodded.

"Good." She was about to go right back to wrestling him down when she realized it would be easier to give him the shot while he was distracted. "Sakura, could you keep him calm while I give him the shot?"

She nodded. "Yes, My Lady." And so she laid the crutch against the wall and sat down next to Kakashi. Keep his eye off of Tsunade wasn't too difficult at first. She could easily hold his attention with calm words. But it was when Tsunade got within a two foot radius with the needle and a cotton swab that he started to get nervous all over again. It turned into her grabbing his arm to hold him down while Tsunade when over a spot on his arm with the alcohol soaked cotton ball. But he ended up grasping her wrist, and as the actual shot was given, she felt pain lance through her arm. She pulled away with a shriek as she looked down at the burns on her wrist where Kakashi's hand had been. But why had he...?

Tsunade took no time at all in noticing. "Sakura, your wrist!"

"It's fine, My Lady. I can heal it..." It wasn't the physical injury that concerned her, it was the fact that her own Sensei caused it that did.

And Kakashi had a look that was something like pure horror as he stared at her wrist. It wasn't a moment sooner that she noticed the foggy look in Kakashi's eyes before they closed and he fell to the side and on Sakura's shoulder. She tilted herself so she was holding him up by the shoulders, his head lulling back in a mess of white hair, and laid him down on the bed. What the heck did Tsunade use? If it worked that quickly, then it had to be strong.

"Now are you sure you're fine?" Tsunade asked.

"Yeah... I'll be okay." She looked back down at the currently unconscious Kakashi as she studied the burns. It was like any spot that came in contact with his hand was red and beginning to blister in some spots. And those red lines branching away. Did he shock her? That would explain why she felt nothing now, it was only the pulse in her fingertips. Nothing more.

Tsunade sighed heavily and pushed a strand of hair that had fallen in her face out of her eyes. "I suppose I should leave before Shizune comes to lecture me about all this paperwork I have to do... good luck, I'll come back when I get the chance."

Sakura nodded slowly, hardly listening as she still stared at the burns. When she was alone again, she looked down at Kakashi and whispered half to herself, "But why?"


	8. Sorry and Revenge

Much later, after Sakura had a chance to try and heal the burns, that Kakashi was coming back around. But she was quick to note that he was very much weak and unable to sit up without support; whether it be from the side effects or the medication earlier, she wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry..."

The voice in which he said it was small, quiet. But it was as honest as the a star was constant, consealed sometimes but always there. Sakura blinked a moment before sitting on the edge of the cot so she could look down at him.

Kakashi's eyes were held half open, and his gaze fell on the blanket for a long moment before he look up at her. That sort of guilty pleading look on his face was more difficult to look at. Not only is a sort of face hard to come across on him on a normal day, but she had expected him to have forgotten the burns he caused in those couple minutes of panic.

"It's alright," she told him, bringing up the wrist he burned. Though not completely healed yet, she reduced a lot of the swelling and most of the blisters had faded. The spot was still a bit red though. "It's almost healed now, you don't need to worry about it."

"I'm sorry, Rin... I'm so sorry..." he continued to murmur. Sakura couldn't help but notice he was still calling her Rin. It was an enigma to her. Did he know someone named Rin? And who was she?

Either way she had to set him straight now. "Kakashi, I'm not Rin. I'm Sakura."

No matter how she could have worded that, the results would be the same. A long few seconds of dead silence, then he broke into tears. What was hard about it was the fact that she couldn't say anything to it better, it was something he had to get over on his own. Not even Naruto would be much help here.

"I promised..." he whispered, and that dead silence fell over them again.

But Sakura was thinking in that time. Who poisoned him? And for what purpose? They obviously wanted him dead, that much was clear from the latest attempt, but why? Wasn't this mental torture enough? Only one thing was for certain: she wouldn't let them try anything on him again.

-0-0-0-

It was deep in the woods where Naruto, Kiba, Akumaru, and Shino were leaping over branches back to the Leaf. Their supposively long mission complete. Well, normally it would be a long one, but Naruto was rushing through it, rushing his two former classmates through it, to get back to the village sooner so he could visit the hospital.

Moonlight streamed through the trees and dappled the bark with it's pale glow. No one said a word until Kiba spoke up.

"Hey, you guys smell that?"

Both Naruto and Shino looked his way and all four stopped. The two listened as Kiba leaned against the tree trunk and continued.

"Someone else is here, and not from the Leaf." He said, looking over his shoulder.

"Then it seems we must hurry and alert the Hokage," Shino said in his usual low voice.

"What? Are you kidding?" Naruto argued louder than he probably should have. "We can't just allow two strangers walk around! We gotta do something!"

"Sorry, Shino," Kiba sighed. "But I'm with Naruto on this one. Leaving two intruders to stalk about? We need to catch them."

"But we need to report to-."

"That's not the issue at the moment! I'm checking this out right now," and with that, Naruto leaped off to find the intruders.

Kiba sighed and shook his head while Shino seemed to look his way, probably glaring through his black-lens. "Does he ever listen?"

"Naruto?" Kiba chuckled. "I thought you knew he was a bonehead."

"I know he is," Shino responded. "But he doesn't even wait for me to say that I would send some insects to keep watch on our guests."

"But it sounded to me like you were just going to blow these two off." Kiba said.

"That's why it pays to listen." Shino sighed, then he went on ahead. "We'd better find him."

"Hey wait up!" Kiba called after him, and rushed to catch up with his cloaked teammate.

While those two were talking, Naruto was jumping around blindly trying to find these two strangers until he heard talking. Upon hearing it, he followed it until he found himself standing over a small camp. It wasn't much, not even a fire set up, just a couple of mats rolled out with two people sitting on them.

One was a man with jet black hair cropped short, his skin was fair and freckled, and for the breif moment he glanced up, he could see sunken, black eyes. Beside him sat what seemed to be a katana, except half the handle was missing, and a tan pack. When he talked, it showed much exhaustion. "I still can't believe I failed..."

The other was a women, with wirey black hair she kept pinned back on one side with a white metal barrette with a moon shape in the middle. Her arms were pale and like his dotted with those same freckles, and on a bare shoulder was a larger one in the rough shape of an open foldable fan. Were they siblings or something, he wondered. Her voice was sort of deep like his. "It's not your fault. This is Kakashi of the Sharingan after all."

Naruto crouched down and listened with a keen interest at the sound of his Sensei's name.

"But the plan, it was going flawlessly, Tsukiko," the boy stated as he let his head fall in his hands. "I had everything fooled, but Kakashi defeated my clone!"

"Tadashi," the girl disagreed calmly. "I know you wish to avenge him as soon as possible, but be patient. Sometimes revenge is best when you savore your victim's pain. The poison I stirred should have killed him by now, but if what you say is true, then they must have extracted most of it. That last bit though will leave him in a state of weakness and confusion. But he's not the problem, it's the others who protect him at the hospital."

"I know," Tadashi agreed. "But even when I got that pink headed girl to leave, Kakashi was able to dodge my attack, then electricute me."

Tsukiko chuckled. "I do suppose it's a good thing that was only a smoke clone, right? Or else I would have another family member to avenge. Of course he could easily pull himself together, I expect no less from the Copy Ninja. But next time, when I get my turn at him, he won't survive."

"Right. What's your plan?" Tadashi asked, looked up at her.

"Later." Tsukiko said, then through a kunai up at Naruto. Caught off guard, it hit him in the shoulder and he fell down from the branch and hit the ground in a heap. He gripped his hands into fists and looked up as she walked to him as she drew out a needle. "Let me take care of this spy first."

With that, she slammed the needle into his arm and he quickly found his body going numb. His vision swayed and blurred before his head fell back down on his arm as he fell unconscious.


	9. Who We Trust

Yamato entered the room about 10 P.M. that night, despite the woman at the front desk insisting that he wait until the morning. He needed to be sure that Kakashi wouldn't have another attempt made on his life for the second night in a row. Still, he hadn't expected to find him or Sakura awake. In fact, he hadn't really thought that he would walk in to find Kakashi crying either. Then again, he had to remind himself of the side effects of the poison Tsunade listed.

It seemed Sakura had little that she could do about the situation. She could only pat his shoulder and tell him it would all be alright. But when she noticed Yamato walk in she pulled on as best a smile as she could, though weak and tired, and gave him that same, "Hi, Captain Yamato."

Of course, unlike Sakura, Kakashi gave him one of those unsure looks upon noticing him. His only two guesses were that he was afraid because of the look-alike, or he was still causious from earlier today. Which ever it was, he wasn't entirely sure.

"Hey Sakura," Yamato said with his usual light smile. "How's Kakashi doing?"

He noticed her hand moved to touch his wrist, but her own was red and blistered. "I think he might actually be improving. I've been hearing a lot less outbursts."

"That's some good news." He agreed.

"Then again, he was pretty much out the whole day, so I can't be entirely sure." Sakura added with a frown.

For a moment, if not more than a few seconds, Kakashi showed a flash of realization in his eyes as he stared at Yamato. Just loud enough for the man across the room to hear, he said under his breath, "Tenzō..."

Now Sakura looked back at Kakashi then to Yamato and asked, "Why does he keep bringing up these random names?"

Yamato rubbed the back of his neck, unsure how to answer that without lying to her. After all, he was still suppose to maintain a codename. "I guess he's going through recognition as Tsunade said he would."

"So you know he knew people by these names?" She asked.

He sighed and nodded. "Yeah."

"Then who is Rin? And Obito?" Sakura asked, sitting up.

So Yamato figured he might as well explain this as simply as he could. "Those two were Kakashi's teammates."

"Were?" Sakura's frown stretched. "So they're dead then?"

At least she got the idea of the word. "Yeah... for a while now. It's a difficult subject to talk about though, I think it's best if you ask Kakashi about it when he's closer to himself."

She nodded with agreement and glanced down at the floor. So she was being confused with someone else? "And what about this Tenzō?"

It doesn't take an expert on the mind to notice Yamato stiffen and look up and away from her. He knew this guy, didn't he? "Tenzō was... someone Kakashi knew in the ANBU..."

Though Sakura gave him that unconvinced look, she figured that it would be best not to press him for now. Yamato at the same time was patting himself on the back for not giving up his cover.

Before this conversation could carry on any further, Kakashi gripped the blanket and looked towards the window, then back at the door. "I hear them!"

Sakura looked his way and back at Yamato. Last time he started acting like this, they were dealing with a look alike of Yamato. What could possibly happen this time?

That's when Naruto came running in. He was breathing hard and gasped for air. "S-Sakura. Captain Yamato. I came here to... where's Kakashi-Sensei?"

"Naruto?" Sakura's first thought was to kick him out because he still should be waiting to visit until Kakashi was better suited to deal with him. But then, what if this wasn't Naruto? She quickly pulled out a kunai and held it up to him. "Alright, who are you really?"

Yamato at first seemed lost at that, but caught on quickly. "Yeah. Tell us something only the real Naruto would know."

Naruto swallowed hard and held his hands out. "I... Sakura, when we were kids you used to call Ino 'Ino Pig' and she used to call you 'Billboard Brow'. And Yamato, you ramble and cough continueously when you're exhausted."

Both looked at each other and nodded, and Sakura lowered the kunai. "Alright. But don't you have to report to Tsunade? And where's Shino and Kiba?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Naruto's face from his headband. "Umm..."

And then Tsunade came rushing in. "Sakura, I just heard from Shino, Naruto has-!" she stopped midsentence when she noticed the knucklehead in question was standing right there. Now here's where everyone stood there with confusion alit on their faces. Someone had to be lying right? Looks like Sakura would have to figure out who.

"Alright, what's going on here." Yamato asked, it was obvious he was going to trap someone in wood if they even moved at all.

Tsunade forced herself to calm down as best she could. "I heard from Shino that Naruto had been captured by invaders in the woods. Kiba tried to find his scent, but it was covered up."

The other two turned and stared at Naruto, with sudden doubts on the identity of him. He stepped back towards the door and rushed out. Tsunade clenched her fist and looked to Yamato and Sakura.

"What are you waiting for, get him!" She ordered. "I'll stay here and watch over Kakashi."

Sakura nodded and ran out with Yamato right behind her. Of course, Naruto was planning to escape no matter what, no way would he risk being caught, especially if it meant Sakura would pumble him. No, he would like to live. But unfortunately for him, it was just outside of the hospital when Yamato caught him with his wood. Trapped, he wriggled and shouted to be released with no avail.

"Alright, talk, where's the real Naruto." Sakura asked, crackling her knuckles.

Naruto stared with wide blue eyes and continued to support his own claim. "It's really me, Sakura! Let me go!"

Yamato sighed and turned to Sakura. "It could be a diversion."

"Then it's a good thing we left Tsunade to take care of things." Sakura said without even looking his way. "And why would they just let Naruto go? It's obvious they planned on killing Kakashi-Sensei with a disguise again."

Upon hearing that, Naruto looked down with defeat. "Alright... you want me to tell you the truth? I don't remember what they did after I was knocked out of a tree... I can recall getting up and walking back, but that's it. I forgot about Shino and Kiba until Grandma Tsunade mentioned them... I don't know why I ran out of the room either. But I think Captain Yamato's right... I was just bait..."

Sakura lowered her fist and sighed heavily. "Then we...?"

Shatter!

Yamato and Sakura turned to see the window of Kakashi's room broken. And without wasting another minute, they rushed back inside.

"Hey! Wait! What about me!" Naruto yelled, kicking his feet. Yamato quickly released the jutsu and Naruto fell to the ground before getting up and running after them.

In one quick motion, Sakura opened the door and rushed inside. But froze with shock at what she saw.


	10. A Desperate Rescue

_In one quick motion, Sakura opened the door and rushed inside. But froze with shock at what she saw._

Standing in the broken window was a woman with black hair holding onto a frightened Kakashi as she was stepping back onto the back of a huge bird. Of course, because of the drug from earlier, her Sensei was completely unable to break free of the woman's grip. And Tsunade? She was out cold against the wall with a needle sticking out of her shoulder. Sakura went right over to see if she was hurt. Or worse.

"Oh happy day!" The woman said with glee as the bird started to take off from the window. "It seems my plan worked better than I thought. Thank you, Naruto for your brilliant distraction!"

Sakura looked over to see Naruto pale in the face before he narrowed his eyes and created a shadow clone. They were making a rasengan before Yamato stopped them.

"Wait, if you hit them with that then Kakashi will fall as well!" He told him quickly. Then he was getting ready to send a block of wood to knock off the woman. But before he could even finish with the hand signs, a needle was thrown his way and hit him right in the chest. He stumbled backwards and hit the wall, face contorted with pain before he grew weak and slumped to the floor.

"Captain Yamato!" Sakura yelped, and raced over to see to the needle. It wasn't a fatal shot, it missed anything vital, but still. It did need to do something to cause him to get like this. And Tsunade? She had pulled the needle out already in the time given. She then looked up to Naruto. "Get Kakashi! Quick!"

Naruto looked back at her a moment and nodded. "I thought you'd never ask." Then he raced full speed and jumped to grab the bird by the taloned foot. It shrieked in alarm and tried to kick him off, but he clutched on for dear life. He used a shadow clone to pull him up before he started to climb up the side of the bird, careful to avoid being smacked off by the wings. When he was full on the bird's back, the woman turned around and sneered.

"So you came back?" She pulled out a bunch of needles and held them between her fingers. "I'll just have to get rid of you." Then she threw them, a few hitting their mark. Naruto gasped and started to fall backwards before he caught himself. He wouldn't leave, not without his Sensei who he would know was safe.

He ran and grabbed Kakashi by the arm before jumping off the bird. There hadn't been time to think, he was running on a fogging head, but when he was midair, clutching onto his Sensei, he realized the full extent of the situation. He was falling towards a dense treeline with nothing to break his fall. And like hell would he ever consider landing on Kakashi to save himself. But that did spring an idea in his mind.

With a few shadow clones spawned from the air, he had them hold on and take the impact of the fall for them. Even still, the force was enough to send him and Kakashi rolling over a few feet away from where they hit, the shadow clones gone with a cloud in their place. He smiled to himself in the last few moments of consciousness; they were alive... Sure they were cut and scrapped from the branches, but they were alive...

-0-0-0-

Sakura bit her lip as she watched the bird go further and further away until they were outside the village walls. And she could only sit there and hope Naruto would be alright. Well that and make sure Yamato and Tsunade were taken care of. Sai had come running in at the last second, confused and in need of a recap on the situation.

"I will go out and search for them." Sai assured.

"Thanks, Sai." Sakura said, trying to heal the deep wound in Yamato's chest. Although the vest did take some on the blow, the needle still sunk straight through it.

Sai summoned up an ink bird and flew out to go search. And she looked up at the sky and realized it was going to rain soon. If it were to rain, then any tracks Kakashi and Naruto could have left would be covered up. Hopefully Sai could find them quickly.

Yamato groaned in discomfort and stared up at her weakly. "Where's... Naruto?" Damn it hurt to talk.

For a moment, she wondered if she should say. If he were to move around right now, it could reopen the wound and make it worse. "Naruto went after Kakashi."

He breathed a chuckle, but clenched his teeth at the pain it caused. "Let's hope... he can handle himself..."

"I'm sure he'll be just fine," Sakura assured. "And Sai went to help. I don't think they'll be gone very long."

Unable to do much of anything else, Yamato held a weak smile before hissing in pain. Sakura flinched before she realized that if this was the same person who poisoned Kakashi, maybe she would be inclined to use poison again. So she undid the vest as quickly as she could and pulled up Yamato's shirt to check. Sure enough, there was a bright red rash spreading around the wound. Obviously not the same as the first toxin, but something to be concerned about. Considering the fact it hadn't spread very far, extracting it was fairly easy. It did, however, end up worsening the wound itself.

But then if Yamato was poisoned, then most likely Tsunade was as well. She pressed a pad of bandages to his chest, and laid his hand over it, before going over to Tsunade to inspect her shoulder. But to her surprise, Tsunade was already on it, drawing the poison out with medical ninjutsu. For a small moment, she glanced up. "That woman took Kakashi."

"Yes, My Lady..." Sakura responded with a sigh.

"I tried to stop her..." Tsunade said quietly. "But, as you can plainly see, that didn't go as intended... I shouldn't have sent you and Yamato after Naruto..."

Slowly, she turned and kneeled down next to Yamato again, and returned to trying to heal the wound. "You weren't the only one who was fooled..."

Tsunade shook her head. "Even half crazy, Kakashi knew where the danger really was... he had been watching the window this entire time. And he was right..."

"Naruto went after him," she informed, to which Tsunade looked at her with clear cut uncertainty. "And Sai is following."

"Let's hope Naruto can handle him..." Tsunade breathed.

Yamato, voice growing weak, responded, "I don't think Naruto... will be the one we should worry about..."

"Just rest," Sakura told him. "You need to save your strength."

With acceptance, Yamato closed his eyes and kept quiet. Unfortunately, it as at the same time Sakura realized she couldn't move them both on her own. Maybe some medics would come in to see the damage. She couldn't let the Hokage and her team's CoCaptain just lay here on broken glass with plaster dust floating in the air. But she couldn't leave Yamato without making sure he would be fine and the poison was fully extracted.

Was this situation ever going to improve, she wondered.


	11. In a Rain Storm

He was in pain. He was lost. What ever numb he had felt before had worn off. Now was his chance to run. He could find somewhere quiet where he could try and think everything through.

But getting up was the problem.

The pain, it was at it's worse in his side and back. And a quick touch let him know of the metal needles that were lodged deep in his skin. Damn it hurt. Bad. But pulling them out was worse; it was one at a time. The tips were barbed and pulled at his flesh. If that wasn't easy to endure, then it was waves after waves of dizziness and nausea he was fighting back. And after that last needle was plucked from his skin, he took a moment to try and settle again.

"I'm alive... why, Obito?" He asked, looking up for a breif moment to see his teammate crouching beside him. He was smiling, goggles pulled over his closed eyes. Then he lowered his head back down on his fist and swallowed a few times to keep from vomiting.

_"Kakashi, sorry I'm late!"_

He looked back up to see Tenzō in Obito's place, his feline mask pushed up. He looked about sixteen or so.

But he smiled the same upon seeing him. "Tenzō... but where...?"

_"Shh. Do you hear that?" _Tenzō pulled the sword out from the sheath on his shoulder, pulled down his mask, and got in a defencive position. What was he staring at? A bush? He had to turn over, pain lancing in his side as he did, to follow his kōhai's gaze. There. Something was moving, he knew it.

"They're coming." Kakashi said in agreement.

It was then a man with a dagger came running out, green eyes ablaze, as he charged at Tenzō. The younger barely rolled out of the way before narrowly dodging a blow with the blade in the enemy's hand. But the second time around, he wasn't as lucky, he was quickly disbalanced and the dagger ran right through him as he laid defenceless on the ground. He screamed in pain.

"Tenzō!" He shouted with alarm. But no answer came as the enemy wiped his blade on the ANBU's vest and started to walk away. "Tenzō! No! No! No! NO!" He shook his head and let it fall back onto the ground. His hands on his face as he continued to curse and shout into his palms. But when all fell silent, the sound of Tenzō groaning gone, he dared to look.

He was alone...

It was dark, raining, and he was alone.

Upon getting up, he stumbled and reached for a tree for balance, then he breathed heavily. No. He couldn't just lay around here. Staying meant leaving yourself open to attack. He couldn't let that happen... but where to go?

As he started to walk, his bare foot kicked up a metal object in the dirt. Clumsily, he kneeled down and picked it up. That spiral sort of symbol engraved into a metal plate. Hidden Leaf. Whose ever headband it was, he could trust them right? His gaze went up until it rested on a blonde boy was was laying unconscious on the ground. His head was in the dirt and his arms stretched out in front of him. Did the headband belong to him then?

On unstable legs, he paced towards the kid and kicked him over on his back so he could see his face. Hmm... seemed... familiar. Like that pink haired girl was familiar. He learned to trust her because she acted like Rin, she didn't try to hurt him. _But I hurt her_, he reminded himself guiltily. And what about this boy? Would he be the same?

Well only way to find out was to wait and see. With what strength and balance he could muster up, he pulled the boy up and onto his back. And although he fell a few times in his search for a place to take shelter, he found himself settling for a space under a few rocks leaning against a tree.

He was cold and wet, but that didn't truly seem to matter at the moment. He just laid the boy down and sat against the tree. His silver hair matted down by the rain. He lurched forward as a fit of coughs shook through him. How long would he sit here? Well the answer to that was obvious: whenever the rain stopped. _And what to do with the boy_, he asked himself. Leave him here? Carrying him would only slow him down, but could he find it in himself to just leave some kid laying around in the woods? He shook his head to answer himself. Nah, he would bring the boy with him, at least until he's able to move on his own.

Although he knew at this point that trying to sleep was useless, he still sat back and watched the rain dribble down off the edge of the rock. Everything was quiet besides the rain. Only the sound of a crow fight above seemed to cut the near silence.

It was then he looked up as a figure was approaching the shelter. A lean man with short black hair. He was holding a katana, like the one he remembered being hurt with earlier. Rain left him soaked, but his black eyes were focused on him regardless. When he was within proximity of the rock shelter, he chuckled. "It's a shame Tsukiko will have to miss the moment our father's murder is avenged."

What was he talking about? He didn't even know this person.

This man blinked slowly when he realized that there was no sort of reaction from his soon-to-be victim. "What? You don't remember? I didn't think so with all that toxin in your blood at this very second. Did those pathetic ninja back in your village extract some? Well it will do no good, will it? This toxin is my specialty. I made it specifically so that even the slightest drop will generate more. The only way to cure it is the antidote."

It was when he swiped his sword at him, but Kakashi managed to twist away from the blade. Growing annoyed and impatient, he dragged him out into the rain and threw him in the mud. Kakashi shivered a little, damn it was cold outside.

This man smiled with bloodlust and swung his sword down, striking Kakashi in the back. Content to see the rush of dark red blood from the new gash, he replaced his katana. But he wasn't done yet. He sat down and pulled a pack off his side, opening it revealed its contents to be a bunch of needles. Then, one by one, he shoved them into his skin. "I know these are not poisoned, not like my sister's, but the barbs will make removing these absolutely painful." He chuckled darkly and licked a bloody finger. "Dear me, it seems you were hit by her needles. Don't fret too much, I'm sure she meant to hit that kid with you. But since we don't want you dying from that particular poison..." He pulled out a syringe, to which Kakashi unsuccessfully shrunk away from. This man laughed, a hand slicking back his dripping bangs out of his face. "Don't tell me you're a trypanophobe, that would be just pathetic coming from Kakashi of the Sharingan. Don't worry now, I'll make it quick."

He had to bite his hand to avoid screaming as the man dug the needle deep into his arm and gave him the antidote to one of the poisons. He shivered and trembled as the needle was then painfully pulled, being tilted so it scratched and made a cut with the sharp metal tip, from his skin.

"And so I must be off," this man said with a cheery voice. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll put you down before the toxin does." With that as his goodbye, the black haired man was gone.

Cold, in pain, and trembling with fear of death that dared to creep in at any moment, Kakashi let his head fall down into the mud as the world around him went black.


	12. And Hurry

Sai narrowed his eyes as he tried to get a better look at the ground below through all this rain. Where was Kakashi anyways? He wasn't exactly sure where to look. Or he thought that until he spotted a break in the treeline where branches were snapped all the way to the ground. It was at least worth investigating.

So he dove down on his ink bird and landed on the forest floor. On the ground was a sort of indent where something must have landed. A few people prohaps? And it seemed that there were spots where grass had been torn out and some blood stained the ground. What he really noticed was it wasn't at random, two different directions away from the indent. Maybe Naruto and Kakashi rebounded upon impact and went flying away from each other? But how would they survive that? He would have found their bodies if that was the case.

Or maybe Naruto could have used his shadow clones to break the fall, he guessed. That seemed likely. After all, he did use those clones of himself rather frequently.

Towards one side, where a little more blood was allowed to spill, he saw something glisten in the wet grass. Sai stepped over to it to find a couple dozen barbed needles laying around. Maybe if he brought one back to be inspected, they could get a better idea who they were facing. So he pocketed a few of the needles and stood up.

He looked up, feeling raindrops hit his face. Trying to paint something in the rain would be next to impossible, his ink would run before it could dry and the picture would be messed up. He would have to track them down without his ink mice. Of course, he was an ANBU, it wasn't so much an impossible feat, right?

It wasn't too hard to put together a guess at what else happened after the impact. Naruto or Kakashi was pulling needles out of himself, then he was very clumsy in making his way to the other person. After that, he thought that maybe one of them was piggybacking the other through the woods. His knowledge pointed to Naruto more, considering Kakashi's condition, because it seemed to fit better than a man who was hardly himself. But his logical answer was squashed when he found a footprint in the mud, the person was barefoot. So not Naruto, since he would have found a shoe. That answers that. Kakashi was carrying Naruto around like a sack of potatoes then.

Sai could easily follow the crushed glass and snapped twigs and branches. It wasn't even so long a walk, maybe about ten minutes for him, but then again it probably took longer for Kakashi, before he found the trail went around a few big rocks leaning against the thick trunk of a tree.

On the other side, he had to do a mental double take at what he saw. Kakashi was laying face down on the ground with blood pooling around him, and needles sticking out of his back and shoulders. Lots of needles. And Naruto was comatose in the small shelter with needles lodged in his shoulders. And there was a trail leading away towards the bushes.

He stepped into the shelter and was quick to paint a bird. "Ninja Art: Super Beast Scroll." And so he had another ink bird. He got up and slung Naruto over it's back, then walked over to Kakashi, carefully picked him up, and laid him down as well before taking off.

After that, the ride back to the Leaf wasn't all that long. But he still had to avoid going too fast, as it would result in Kakashi and Naruto free falling back into the trees.

Back at Kakashi's ruined hospital room, he found Tsunade and Yamato being assisted through the doorby a couple pairs of medics. And Sakura was waiting for him. When she saw Sai, she found herself growing anxious.

"Are Kakashi and Naruto okay?" She asked, before seeing them herself.

Sai looked down as he landed, water dripping off his hair and his fingertips, and then glanced back at the two in quesiton on his ink bird's back. "I am sorry, Sakura. I arrived too late."

Her fear was what he saw the most in her eyes as she rushed around to see them both. Sakura's voice shook. "Oh my god." Eyes bright with alarm, she looked up to Sai. "Sai, I need you to get me someone to help bring these two to somewhere I can get a better look." Another glance before she added, "And quick!"

He didn't need to be told twice as he jumped off the bird and ran out the door. Sakura stayed, and pulled them both off of the ink bird and layed them down on the ground. Her heart slamming against her chest at just the sight of it. That woman... she would pay for all of this. All this pain she put her friends and teammates through. But right away, she got work with evaluating Kakashi's current condition.

"S-Sakura?"

She blinked and looked over to Naruto, his blue eyes half open and staring back at her. His face pinched with pain as he wrapped a shakey hand around the first needle and pulled it out, blood and a piece of flesh lodged on the barbs. Right away, she stopped him from tugging at the second. No, it would be better, and cleaner, if she did this herself. "Please, Naruto. I'll take care of it, it's the same as how I took care of Yamato."

"What about... Kakashi-Sensei?" He asked, his gaze shifting to said man laying perfectly still face down. "Will he...?"

There was nothing she could say, nothing that would hurt him more than he already was. Sakura bit her lip and shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. "No... he'll be alright..." She was shaking, hating having to lie to him. But she wasn't sure anymore. At this point, Kakashi had entered a state of shock. "He'll be perfectly alright..."

And that's when two medics and Sai came rushing in with a pair of stretchers. The first froze for a moment. "My goodness..." Then he helped position Kakashi up on one, then Naruto on the other. Sakura helped push the end of Kakashi's, Sai with Naruto. It wasn't long before they reached the closest operation room.

Shizune was standing, waiting for them. She nodded to Sai, "Thank you for your assistance, Sai. You can leave now, Sakura and I can handle this. Report to Lady Tsunade, she's just down the hall."

Sai nodded and walked out of the room, going straight to the Hokage to give her his report on the situation.


	13. Long Talks and Late Night Operations

Sai walked into the hospital room and quickly looked around the room. Tsunade was sitting on a cot, healing herself, and Yamato was leaning against the headboard of another cot and seemed on the verge of passing out. Was this from those needles? He wondered.

"Lady Tsunade," he greeted, "I've recovered Kakashi and Naruto."

She looked up from her shoulder and nodded. "Thank you, Sai. What are their conditions?"

He couldn't be any blunter. "Naruto had at least a dozen needles in his shoulders. And Kakashi had more than I could count sticking out of his back, there was also a slash wound as well. Both were unconscious when I found them."

There was a long moment where the room was silent. Tsunade and Yamato were taking this in.

"They are in the operation room now," Sai continued.

Slowly, Tsunade nodded, still thinking. Then she stood up as if she hadn't been hit by a poison needle less than an hour ago. "I'm going to help them over there."

A medic seemed alarmed. "My Lady, but the poison!"

"I've already taken care of it," she assured, opening the door, "Sai, you stay here with Yamato. Fill in any details." And with that, she was gone to the operation room.

Yamato sighed lightly, it hurt to breathe too deeply. "Tell me the details about your search." Then he arched an eyebrow when he realized that Sai hadn't even thought to sit down. "Why not you take a seat, we'll be here for a while."

Sai nodded and found the closest chair he could sit down in. It was all a matter of telling his side of the story now.

-0-0-0-

Sakura tied back her hair and got straight to work. First thing was first, get rid of the needles. She and Shizune were working on Kakashi, who they believed was the more serious of the two cases. At least Naruto was semiconscious.

But before anyone could really get to work, Tsunade came into the room. She looked from one person to the next and walked towards the stretcher Naruto was laying on. "I think you might need a hand."

Sakura pulled as best a smile as she could for her teacher before returning to her work. Shizune was already getting to work with the gash on his back, and so she slowly begun to pull the needles out. Looking closely at the first one, she noticed how the barbs curved backwards; so pushing the needle in wouldn't get the barbs caught, but pulling them back out was when the small hooks would catch onto flesh and make it painful to remove. Knowing this, she proceeded to remove the next.

Twenty-seven needles later, Shizune was mostly done with the gash, it at least stopped bleeding, so she helped with the rest of the needles. Pulling the metal objects out required a lot of slow pulling and sometimes pushing them back in when they started to catch. So it sometimes took minutes to pull just a couple of them.

And Tsunade had it no better, although she successfully removed all the needles she had to then remove the poison and heal the smal, but deep, tears that the needles caused.

-0-0-0-

"And that's when I found them both." Sai concluded.

Yamato sighed, thinking over everything that Sai had told him. It was all that bad? "Alright. And that brings us back to here... I got it." He was about to sit back, but found himself gripping his chest instead. Okay, so he couldn't move around as much as he liked. "Sai, I know Tsunade isn't here to approve of this, but I need you to go and capture this intruder. I'll tell her when she comes back, but we can't risk another attack."

Sai didn't seem to flinch. "With all due respect, Captain Yamato, but I don't think they will be coming back very soon. I will wait until I'm sure Naruto and Kakashi are stable and Lady Tsunade has agreed to this mission."

"Then we'll lose their trail," Yamato argued, desperation started to show, "by the time you're on the move, they'll have their tracks covered and gone. When we least expect it, they'll come sneaking back and strike again."

"But I-."

"Sai." His stare was more serious now.

So Sai stared back with a blank unreadable expression. "You're nervous?"

Although he pretty much hit the nail on the head, that didn't mean Yamato would admit anything. "No! I just want this threat taken care of."

"This intruder most likely thinks that Kakashi is dead by now," he pointed out, "No one would leave someone the way they did unless they intended on leaving them to die there. It was sloppy and rushed, but it seemed like whoever did this was intending to torture him. If they weren't sure the job would be finished, then they would have killed him before they left."

This is one of those times where, if you're against his point, you realize he's probably right. And he's probably right because he's thinking a lot clearer than you. "But you'll still lose the trail in this rain, and they need to be caught."

"And I'm sure, when they do hear that Kakashi has lived through their attack again, they will return." Sai reasoned. "But for now, what we should be focusing on is the wounds that need to be healed."

"You're just going to wait here?" Yamato reworded. "And let the enemy come back to strike?"

Sai's face still gave nothing away. "By now, the rain has probably washed away their trail, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't know where to look. But if we were to wait for them to return, then we can let them fall into a trap."

Even Yamato could see the logic in that. He sighed and looked down at the blanket again with defeat. Just waiting like this? It seemed more like the intruder was in control of this whole situation. Either way though, Sai made a point, a very good and reasonable point.

"Captain Yamato," Sai said a minute later, "I never saw you so urgent before, and I was wondering... how close are you to Kakashi?"

-0-0-0-

Tsunade breathed heavily as she finally managed to remove the rest of the poison. "Shizune, Sakura. How are you both doing?"

Shizune answered without looking up from the needle she was carefully pulling out. "I sent the extra medic out to have one of the needles analized, since I wasn't sure if there had been poison in it or not."

Another needle, Kakashi didn't move anymore. Sakura was starting to get nervous. When Sai brought him here, he had lost so much blood already and had gone into shock. Even though he was unconscious, he at least responded to the removal of the needles. But now there was nothing. Carefully, she moved to check his pulse.

Tsunade's assistant looked up at Sakura, her hands moved away from the next needle she was about to pull out. "What are you...?"

Sakura stepped back. "He's..."

Suddenly, Kakashi jolted on the stretcher, and after that, his fingers twitched. Sakura blinked in surprise and went back to check his pulse a second time. But just before her fingertips even touched the skin of his neck, she felt a small shock jump to her and pulled back. Nevertheless, she went back to check again.

Shizune seemed to understand what was going on now. "What were you going to say?"

After taking a slow breath to calm herself down, Sakura explained. "The first time I checked, I didn't find a pulse. And we both just saw him jolt on the stretcher. When I checked again, he had a pulse again, weak, but it's there."

Both were quiet for a long moment before they continued to pull out the needles. Shizune then asked, "Do you think he jump started his own heart?"

How could that be? But then again, there was that shock she felt. It could be right. It still sounds pretty crazy. Usually when someone thinks that someone's going through cartiac arrest, they don't imagine that the person going through it can spontaniously electricute themselves. And usually when a shinobi was pretty much in the same condition he was, they usually couldn't control their chakra until recovery; in Kakashi's case, he still can under pressure and stress. Was this simply another one of those times?

-0-0-0-

Yamato would have skipped the question if he had something else he could bring up. "Kakashi and I are old friends, and I looked up to him. I just... I don't like seeing him like this and knowing we can catch the one responcible." He didn't think Sai would understand it. But then again, he saw that little picture book he carried around, maybe he would.

"So you have a bond with him," Sai concluded, "like Naruto and Sasuke."

"Yeah," Yamato agreed. "Something like that."

"I know what it feels like to look up to someone," Sai continued. "I know I may not act it all the time, but I know it. I suppose our feelings towards these people in distress is different. But you aren't alone."

He arched an eyebrow, getting the sinking feeling that what Sai got this from was another one of those books Sakura was always complaining about. "Thanks." _I guess..._


	14. Request

Just as the pale light of a foggy dawn crept up upon the village, the long operations on both Kakashi and Naruto had been concluded. Both alive. Weak and in need of rest. But alive and stable. There were moved form the operation room to the same room Yamato was still resting in, considering Kakashi's was in need of repair.

It had been a long night, and so Sakura was more than willing to doze off for a few minutes. Unfortunately, she was stuck on that same chair. For a long moment, she stared at an extra cot in the corner, no one was using it. So why not? She stood up and shuffled over before rolling on her back and falling asleep on the firm mattress.

It wasn't more than an hour later when Sai walked in. He looked from one sleeping shinobi to the toher before glancing over at Sakura. She was huddled up, goosebumps on her arms. So he walked over without a sound and pulled the blanket over her and sat down in the chair, thinking about his despute with Yamato last night. If only he could fix that one thing.

He sat there for a while, and soon Tsunade came inside. She looked at Sai for a long moment, then over to Sakura. It didn't surprise her that her student fell asleep. She was probably the one working the hardest. And now her whole team was stuck here. Well, maybe not Naruto for very much longer, but still. Kakashi and Yamato. It was just a bit difficult to believe.

Sai looked up at Tsunade and greeted her with a nod. "Lady Tsunade, may I ask something?"

"What is it?" She asked back.

He said this without any sort of hesitation. "May I go out and find the intruders?"

Tsunade was somewhat surprised by the request. "Alright. I'll set up a team and-."

"If I may, then I wish to go alone," Sai put in.

She seemed really taken off guard by this. "Alone. But what if you were to be poisoned? No one can bring you back here."

"I know the risks," he assured. "But this is something I should do alone, for my teammates."

In the back of her mind, she smiled. It seemed Sai was finally understanding teams and friendships. "Report back as often as possible so I can send help if you need it. Now go."

Sai nodded and got up before leaving. But just before he was out the door he added, "Please do not tell Sakura and Naruto where I've gone."

-0-0-0-

Hours later, Tsunade was beginning to regrete her decision.

"TSUNADE!"

She didn't look up as Danzo came stomping into her office with veins popping at his bandaged forehead and a scowl upon his face. When he slammed his hand on her desk, she looked up boredly. "What is it, Danzo?"

"Why did you send Sai out," he yelled.

"He requested to go on this assignment," she answered plainly, "if you have a problem with it then take it up with him."

"But Sai-!"

"Is able to make his own decisions without your approval," she finished as Danzo's face contorted angrily. "I'm in charge, and I say Sai is completely able to handle himself."

Danzo was about to continue his tyrade when Tsunade narrowed her eyes into a fierce glare.

"If all you're going to do is yell and throw a fit, then get out of my office."

With that, Danzo scuffled out, glaring back at Tsunade all the way while Shizune slipped past him and into the room.


	15. Recognition and Revelations

Around midday, Yamato was awake and trying to move around. Sure it hurt like hell, and he needed to keep quiet so he wouldn't wake up Sakura, but he was just relieved to know he could move. Well that and the fact that Kakashi was still alive.

What seemed to be the hardest was sitting up, he needed to move slowly so he wouldn't reopen the wound, but at the same time it was still painful to hold up his torso from the bed until he was actually sitting upright. From there, getting up and onto his feet was easier.

He sat back down on the edge of Kakashi's cot, just looking down at him. His eyes were half open, staring off at something distantly.

Yamato sighed and looked at his lap. "Kakashi, I hope you hear me and actually understand..."

-0-0-0-

He found himself dancing on the edge of reality and day dreams. What was real anymore? How did he drop so low? So far from the surface... it was like he was drowning; sinking lower and lower to some point where the light never reaches. Some point he would be there, but for now, all he could do was trash and stuggle to make it back. Claw his way up again.

"Kakashi, I hope you hear me and actually understand..." he heard in the long stretching shadows around him. He knew that voice... it seemed familiar...

_He was bleeding on the ground. Convulsing in pain. Fitful, pathetic moans._

_"Tenzō," he told him quietly, "hey it's alright. You're alright. Come on, get up, I'll get you to the hospital."_

_His friend blinked weakly. "W-why...? The mission..."_

_"It's fine," he assured._

_"But... our objective..." Tenzō argued weakly._

_"I didn't join the ANBU to watch my teammates die around me," he said lowly before pulling the younger on his back. "Besides, Yasha went ahead and told me to take you with me."_

_He felt the seventeen year old grip onto his vest, his mask pressed against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Senpai..."_

_"Hey, I already told you it's fine," he disagreed. "Now why not you shut up and enjoy the ride."_

Right... that was it.

"I know the poison is painful, I know the illusions you're having are realistic, and I know that you're scared of what will happen if you actually snap out of this. I went through the same thing..."

_He was so still. So peaceful. He realized this as he watched Tenzō sleep. The poison was drawn out, but he had a fever. He hadn't said a word since they got him back to the village. Poor kid._

_"Kakashi, I know you mean well, but I think you need to let this one go." His Captain said._

_"No," he was quick to refuse. "No. Tenzō will be fine. I know he'll be fine. He'll tough it out."_

_His Captain shook his head. "You know as well as I do that the doctors tried everything. But he's somewhere else now. There is nothing else we can do except make sure he's comfortable."_

_"You're wrong, I know he's still there. I just need to snap him out of it."_

_"Why are you so persistant?"_

_"Because I don't want to see my friends die!"_

_Both were silent for a long moment before the Captain looked down, his mask hiding his emotions. "I have a report to file in."_

_"Good for you," he said in almost a growl. "Why not you go do that."_

_"You know, Kakashi, you can't save everyone," his Captain said scornfully. "One of these days you'll have to learn that."_

_"I already know I can't..." he shot him a glare through his mask. "If I could then I would have saved my teammates before."_

_"But Tenzō isn't Obito," his Captain nearly shouted, "you have to let it go."_

_"No, you're right, he isn't Obito," he agreed, "and that's why I can't let something like that happen again."_

So it seems...

"But you need to snap out of it. No one is here to hurt you. We want to help you, but all you do is fight back and retreat somewhere we can't follow. Sakura and Naruto, they need you. I need you. The whole village needs the old Kakashi back, and he's been gone for too long now."

He could see him now, sitting on the edge of the bed looking down at his lap. Was this real or another day dream, he wondered.

Tenzō glanced his way for no more than a few seconds before sighing heavily and standing up, his hand coming to his chest. "But if you're going to let yourself get this bad, then go ahead. I won't sit by you until you recover if it isn't going to happen."

He tried to reach for his wrist, but he was just out of reach. Tenzō just walked over to the window, leaving him to lay there and mull over what he said.

Hands coiling into fists, he sat up and stood on unsteady feet, knowing what he had to do. Then he was moving towards the door.

"Wait a sec, Kakashi what are you doing?" He heard his friend asked with shock and surprise in his voice.

Kakashi's responce was his two fingered wave as he stepped out the door and into the hall, but he didn't go far before Tenzō caught up and grabbed him by his arm

"Come on, get back to bed," he urged. "You'll just be pushing whatever poison's left around."

"I'm not scared anymore..." Kakashi told him, his voice quiet. "Just let me go, Tenzō."

"No," the younger denied. "I won't. Senpai, just go back to bed."

"I'm sorry," he turned around and put his hand on Yamato's shoulder. And for a long moment, they were staring at each other. Then Tenzō visibly weakened before passing out. Kakashi steadied him and lowered his now incapasitated friend down to the wall. "But I have to do this."

And with that, he closed his Sharingan eye and walked into the destroyed hospital room, where he jumped out of the hole and made his way towards the gate.

_"Come on, come on. Please work." He pleaded out loud._

_Tenzō fidgetted slowly before coughing. Then the twisting dark lines all over his skin started to fade, receeding back to the injury. Though pain flashed and settled repeatedly across the seventeen year old boy's face, he was slowly beginning to relax with time. And soon he was still again. But the dark lines were gone._

_Kakashi scored a light cut near the injury on his side, and was pleased to see the blood running was red now. No longer a near black. It was more a relief if anything. What he did, it was obviously enough. "Tenzō, you're going to be alright now. Everything's going to be fine. The poison's gone. I took care of it. Just wake up soon so I know you're still here."_

_But no responce, not for a long while._

_When the kid did, it was with a groan. He turned over a couple of times before looking up at him. "Kakashi-Senpai? Where are we...?"_

_"Back at the Leaf," he answered smiling under his mask._

_"But what happened?" Tenzō asked. "Was the mission a success?"_

_"It was," Kakashi answered. "But that was two weeks ago."_

_This made the younger's eyes the size of moons. "Weeks? Why was I...? What the hell?"_

_"You were poisoned and unresponcive." There was so much he wanted to say right now, but he would be breaking the code more so than he had already. "I gave you an antidote and you recovered. But everyone thought you were done for."_

_"Really? Thanks," Tenzō smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I kind of owe you."_

_"I won't hold you to it," Kakashi told him. "I just didn't want to see my teammate die."_


	16. Tell Me

Sakura yawned before realizing something was off. Kakashi wasn't there, and neither was Captain Yamato. She immediantly got up and walked out into the hall. Well that answers one question.

Yamato was asleep, leaning against the wall. Now it wasn't like this was just some usual thing like he passed out or something. He seemed unnerved even unconscious. And because she saw him sleeping before, she knew this wasn't normal. Genjutsu maybe?

She crouched down beside him and pushed his shoulder around a little. "Captain Yamato. Hey, come on. Wake up."

He groaned and blinked hazily at her. Then he shot up to a straight out side, which in turn brought swift pain to his chest wound, and pressed a hand to the bandage. His gaze was flittering from one place to the next, looking for something. Or someone.

"Hey, what happened?" She asked, confused. "I thought you were supposed to be in bed, and so was Kakashi."

Yamato bite his lip before standing up and starting to rush down the wall. "Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn." He couldn't believe that happened. Why? The last thing he really remembered was the spinning tomoe in Kakashi's Sharingan. It wasn't until he woke up that realized that he had been knocked unconscious.

"Wait a sec, you aren't leaving this hospital!" Sakura protested, grabbing him by the arm. "You're wound still needs to heal. I'll find Tsunade and tell her-."

"What?"

She turned to see said blonde Hokage walking towards them. She seemed tired, which made her wonder if her own wound had been keeping her up. Probably not, she was good enough a medic to reduce the pain without any problems.

"Lady Tsunade," Sakura did a quick bow before explaining, "Kakashi-Sensei ran off. He even knocked Captain Yamato out."

The older nodded before turning to Yamato, who pulled his arm from Sakura's hand. "I need you to tell me what you know happened just before he ran off."

He found it hard to believe he actually needed to think on this one. What did happen? "I was sort of talking to him, he wasn't replying... then he got up and I tried to stop him... but he..."

"Just out with it, the sooner I know the sooner we can find him," Tsunade said, True, the clock was ticking.

"He used his Sharingan to put me to sleep, I think..." he said, looking down. Why was that so hard to remember.

"Tell me, was he silent? Seem distant?" She asked.

Did he?

"I swear, Yamato, if you don't tell me then I'll beat it out of you," Tsunade threatened. "This is important."

"I know!" He near shouted, losing his patience. "I just can't remember the finer details of it!"

Tsunade sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alright, hold still."

"Wait, what?" He took two steps back as Tsunade reached out with two fingers with a faint green glow, but still, she managed to touch him square in the forehead (since he doesn't have his full face protector on).

_"Wait a sec, Kakashi what are you doing? Come on, get back to bed, you'll just be pushing whatever poison's left around."_

_"I'm not scared anymore... Just let me go, Tenzō."_

_"No, I won't. Senpai, just go back to bed."_

_"I'm sorry..."_

He gasped as she withdrew her fingertips and the flashback was concluded. Then he felt the throb of a headache starting to take hold. "What the hell?"

"Yamato, do you know what you did earlier?" She asked.

"I thought that was why you were just poking at that memory." He grunted.

She narrowed her eyes a moment, "Don't get smart with me. Whatever it was you said to him, it somehow got some sense back into him. He was actually responding and acting a little like his old self. I can't say that was completely him, but it wasn't insane either."

"So you're telling me that I might have just talked some sanity into him," Yamato reworded.

"That's right." Tsunade answered with a nod.

"But that doesn't tell us where he's going," Sakura cut in.

"Or maybe it does." Tsunade said with a smirk. "Why would he knock Yamato out?"

Yamato's eyebrows shot up. "Are you implying Kakashi's going after that woman?"

"It's possible." She answered. "But I have Sai after her as well, so we don't need to worry too much if that's the case."

"If?" Sakura seemed more confused now.

"It's also a possibility he could be chasing old memories," Tsunade explained, "which would mean that although he would have his normal mindset back, he'd be following phantoms of his past. Old teammates and friends. They might lead him to places of traumatic events."

Everyone stood there in silence. Both would be some sort of reason why Kakashi might not want Yamato to come along. But they also had to add in the mentally unstable factor into it. With that, there was no telling what he would be doing.

"There is one other thing he could be doing…" Yamato admitted a long moment later. "I know this is hard to believe, but I was once suffering from the same poison, the symptoms are the same. He stayed by my side the whole time. Now he obviously got a cure for it or else I won't be here. He told me later that it was a jutsu. It puts a massive amount of power into someone's immune system, which in turn will destroy any sort of virus."

"And you think he's running off to do just that," Tsunade concluded.

"But there's a catch," he added, "For this to work, you need a healthy person to preform it on the patient. If someone in his condition attempted to do this, it would put his body under worse strain, they always die. Kakashi knows that, so I don't know if that's what he's planning."

Sakura merely twitched an eye. "I thought Tsunade said there was only one cure for the poison."

"Like I said, it's a jutsu," Yamato said, "a forbidden one that he copied from no one knows where. It's probably not likely that either one of you would know it."

"And why is it forbidden," Tsunade asked.

"Because the amount of chakra it takes to strengthen the immune system is extreme. It could go either way, killing the person casting the jutsu because of the power it requires or killing the person who the caster is trying to save due to the strain on their systems." He explained. "But in some few cases both have survived. The risk is what makes it forbidden."

-0-0-0-

Sai peaked down from his vantage point in the trees. He found the intruder, and some other person. So there were two intruders then? Well they don't want to make this easy, do they?

He rolled out one of his scrolls and painted snakes all over the paper. "Ninja art: Super beast scroll." The snakes came slithering off the paper and down the tree trunks, coming slowly to the two trespassers. Both of them noticed the creatures a little too late when they were trapped in coils.

"What is this?" The woman shouted, looking from one place to the next. "Show yourself!"

Sai jumped down and walked towards them. "I would think someone who caused as much trouble as you would be a challenge. I suppose I'm wrong."

The man scoffed, "Should've figured the Leaf would be after us…"

"Are you admitting to something," the woman growled to him, "shut up!"

He had his snakes tighten their hold a little, which was enough to end their squabble. "I want to know why you are so persistent in trying to kill Kakashi Hatake?"

"Kid, you have no idea what you're talking about," the woman argued. "You don't even know what he did!"

"Then tell me what he did." Sai requested. "I do have all day."


	17. A Race Against Time

Kakashi came to a stop at a small cave, where he crawled inside and seated himself on the dirt ground. He was about to begin casting the jutsu when he heard the crunch of a branch and looked back at the entrance. There, he tensed and reached for a rock by his hand.

"Please, don't strike," the newcomer requested, hands up. "I don't want to hurt you."

"What do you want?" He asked lowly, there wasn't time for these distractions. He could feel the poison spreading with a dull throb.

The newcomer said calmly, "I want to help you."

-0-0-0-

"Then tell me what he did." Sai requested. "I do have all day."

The woman looked to her brother, who nodded. She sighed heavily, black hair falling over her eyes. "This Kakashi of the Sharingan, he isn't the man you think he is."

"And how so?" The artist asked, ready to tighten the snakes at a moment's notice.

"He's a monster," she went on.

"Is every person who is seeking revenge unable to get to the point," Sai wondered.

While his captive glared at him, her brother finally shouted, "He killed our father! Okay!"

"Tadashi," the woman gasped.

"No. It's okay, Tsukiko, there's no point in hiding it." He sighed, letting his head hang on his shoulders. "Besides... I think... you should know something by now."

"What?" Her head turned and Sai watched them with that unfazed look. Peaking out from his collar was black lines, long and twisting, they followed the veins in his neck. Tsukiko thrashed in her restraints, "NO! Tadashi! How?"

A small grin came to his lips. "Remember... when I went after Kakashi Hatake the first time? Weeks ago?" She nodded and so he continued, "I had slipped into his appartment while he had been sleeping. But when I came within a few feet with the syringe, he grabbed my wrist and forced me to take the poison instead of him. So I took my knife and slashed at him..."

"He has done what I feared..." his sister sobbed. "Not only do I lose my father but now my brother!" Her dark eyes were ablaze as she glared at Sai. "You see what you've allowed? I could save him if you just let us go!"

"Don't... even... bother..." Tadashi breathed.

Tsukiko's anger turned to fear and then pleading. "Please. Just let us go. I need to heal him."

Sai only blinked and a long silence settled over them.

-0-0-0-

They were running through the woods, there wasn't a moment to waste. Tsunade was leading Yamato and Sakura as they worked to track a now missing Kakashi.

"Why hasn't Sai contacted us yet?" Sakura asked.

"It could be because he hasn't encountered Kakashi at all," Yamato answered. He was falling behind the two, his hand pressing to the bandage. He bit his tongue in an attempt to suppress the groans and gasps of pain that flared up as he moved.

Tsunade then let her eyes fall on a few snapped branches, "Well either he's trying to miss lead us or we're going the right way."

_I hope it's not the former,_ Yamato thought to himself. Would he? He wasn't so sure. Yeah Kakashi was somewhat back, but would he even bother making false trails?

A sudden flash of pain and Yamato found himself catching a tree for balance.

"Captain Yamato!" Sakura rushed over. His hand was gripping his wound, she pried it off and found red seeping around into the fabric like a bloom. "I told you that you should have stayed at the hospital!"

All he could manage was a faint smile before he winced. "We can deal with this later, right now we need to find Kakashi."

"But the wound-!"

"Sakura, trust me, okay?" Yamato requested.

She stared at him for a second before looking down at the wound and nodding. "Alright. Are you sure you'll be alright?"

"I will," he said, pushing away from the tree, "we need to hurry."

Sakura barely caught the disapproving look in Tsunade's eyes as she caught up. Why did she let him go on?

-0-0-0-

He would have screamed if it weren't for the brief moment where his body failed to respond. Damn it hurt, so much. Like everything was contracting, he curled in on himself like a dead spider's legs as all his muscled tensed up painfully. His vision was blurred and he was chasing flashes and splotches of light out, the edges hazing black.

For a moment, he dared a look at this man who kneeled over him, his hands just barely ghosting over his shoulders. It was surprising how he even managed to sit up, but then again, his body was so pinned up that it wasn't possible for him to move.

Then he felt the power go stretch to his palms, his arm a light with sparks as he struggled to move the limb, but this man simply increased the chakra flow. And like that, the sparks died and the charge on his skin was gone. The stranger's voice was deep and sort of raspy, "Calm yourself, the resistance will make it painful."

"I-I can't... move..." He hardly managed, even breathing itself was difficult when all your windpipe was doing was shutting up tight. He couldn't finish his sentence because whatever came out was some unknown almost gasping-moan sort of noise. So much pain...

How much longer could he go before everything failed?


	18. Yield

Tsunade paused for a breif moment as she felt all the light hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end and her fingertips grew numb. "Do the rest of you feel that?"

With that, Sakura slowed and took note of the change in the air. This was a lot of chakra being released. "We must be getting close."

"Kakashi must have started the jutsu," Yamato swallowed before starting to speed up, hand still pressed to his chest. "We don't have time!"

So they followed the high energy in the air towards it's source, a small cave. Sakura wasn't so sure, why would he hide in there? Well it was certainly not so obvious. At some angles a bush or a rock conceiled the entrance nicely.

All three exchanged a quick glance before starting to crouch down and move inside the cave. In the dark, she could just make out Kakashi's shape, his body curling in on itself. And just behind him was some stranger with his hands just lightly hanging over his tense shoulders.

"Whoever you are... leave at once," this stranger said harshly.

Without warning, Kakashi wiped his head back to scream but nothing seemed to come out. She could, in the lowlight, see the pain pinch his expression. Sakura tightened her fist.

"That jutsu is dangerous," she warned, "you need to stop now."

The man shook his head. "Stopping now would mean I need to start all over."

Alright, so no voice of reason? She swung back her fist and got ready to smack him off, but he at least had enough sense to jump out of the way. When he did, the jutsu was released and Kakashi fell to the ground limp. Yamato was quick to grab him and rush outside. Sakura tried to swing another punch but the guy ran under her arm and outside.

And there outside, she saw his face.

-0-0-0-

Tsukiko seemed on the verge of tears, Sai noted, as she said again, "Please! I need to give him the antidote!"

"I wonder, how much of the antidote did you prepare?" He asked.

Her eyes narrowed. "Enough."

"But how many doses?" He asked.

"Three." She answered with venom in her tone.

Sai put on a smile. "Okay, I'll let you go on one condition, you give me some of the antidote to take with me."

The woman's eyes grew wide, she hadn't expected this kid to yield either. And now he was making a deal? She wasn't sure what to say simply because if she complied then that would mean she was accepting defeat. "No."

"Then your brother will die." Sai said, smile fading as he glaced to the man beside her. Tadashi was growing weak now, his head lulling on his shoulders.

She bit her lip and nodded. "Okay. Fine. I'm sorry, Tadashi."

"Are you accepting the terms or are you not?" Sai asked.

Tsukiko glared. "I am accepting them..."

"Then I will release you for the moment while you give your brother the antidote." Sai said flatly and had his snakes loosen and slither off, but hang close by. Right away she dug into a pouch on her side and pulled out a syringe with sloshing silver liquid. She quickly injected it into her brother's arm and let it fall on the grass before the snakes rushed back to coil about them.

Sai stepped over and kneeled down to pull another syringe from her pocket, which he held in his hand for a moment before smiling. "I won't be leaving you." Then he made a small ink bird and had it take the needle in its mouth along with a note that he wrote before flying off. "But thank you for being so compliant."

She sobbed a moment before looking down.

-0-0-0-

The man in front of them was tall, with skin pale and dotted with freckles. His eyes were dark and hair like charcoal and ashes. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that he looked like that woman.

"Alright, who are you?" Sakura questioned.

He held up his hands as she raised a kunai up to his neck. "Please, I don't mean to do him any harm."

"And why should we trust you?" Tsunade stated, crossing her arms.

He didn't seem anything but worried. "Because it's my own children coming after your friend." With a downward cast, he looked at Kakashi. Said man was currently incapacitated and breathing rapidly. "They're using my own poison, and the Copy Ninja was using my jutsu."

Then Sai's little ink bird came flying in. Yamato let it land on his shoulder and read the note wrapped round a syringe. "'I have captured the intruders. One of them was carrying the antidote, so I thought that you might need it as well.'"

Sakura seemed to brighten up as she was handed the antidote and she kneeled down next to Kakashi, ready to administer it. "Looks like you don't have to do anything."

"That isn't the antidote," the old man stated.

She faltered and looked up with uncertainty. "What do you mean?"


	19. Where All Stories Connect

Tadashi was coughing, blood dribbling from his lips. His gaze weak as he stared over at his sister. "But... why...?" She was crying, and he knew that his sister just injected him with more poison. Why did she say that it was the antidote? "Why... Tsukiko...?"

"I'm sorry... so sorry..." She murmured. "But they will pay... all of them..."

His eyes drooped before falling shut. All he heard was the slowing beat of his heart. _Da-thump. Da-thump... Da-thump... Da-thump... Da. Thump... Da... thump..._

Tsukiko choked on a sob before focusing her chakra on the restraints. All of them would pay.

-0-0-0-

"That in your hand is the very poison in your friend."

"Explain it to us then." Sakura said, pressing the tip of the syringe right at his neck. "Naruto told me your kids said, and they both think you're dead and that Kakashi killed you!"

He swallowed thickly and looked down. "All of this is because of something that happened nine years ago... Back then, I had been sent on a mission to protect a scroll, but then we were attacked on the road by ANBU Black Ops." Yamato had to force the shock from his face as he himself remembered the exact same mission. "I downed one of them with my poison needles, the same my children use, but then another came and chased me off with full intentions of killing me. That man was Kakashi."

Sakura looked from him to her Sensei on the ground. Could it really be true?

"So I was told by the last living in my squad that running like I did was a cowards move." He continued. "He would have killed me had I not begged for my life to be spared. But he told me that I would never be allowed to enter the village, not as long as I live. My last request to him was that he should tell my kids that I died in battle. When he knew what this would do, he asked for a specific name. At the time, I could think of no one else except for the Copy Ninja who dishonored me. And that was the name my squadmate left with."

Tsunade sighed. There she realized that Yamato knew exactly what he was talking about. He could even back up the story. But they both knew that would break his cover. It surprised her that this man didn't give anything discriptive about Yamato in his side of the story. He probably didn't remember.

"Since that day, I realized how rash I was in giving Kakashi's name," he said with sorrow. "I wanted to go home and tell my children the truth. But when I heard five years later that they were starting to hunt him down, I knew I had to stall them as best I could. It was until a month ago that I had been successful in throwing off their progress."

"And the jutsu? When did he ever copy that?" Yamato asked.

He had to think. "Maybe his team was spying. My friend had been cleaning some of his own needles when he left one of the floor. He had stepped on it and so I had to use that jutsu to counter act the poison. Unlike mine, his was fast acting so action had to be taken immediately. But it's dangerous if you don't know how to use it."

Before anyone could add anything, Sai came flying through the bushes scribbling down some on a scroll. And just after that came the woman, this man's daughter.

"Tsukiko!" He exclaimed.

She paused a moment and looked over at him. "D-dad?"

Tsunade stopped Sai and asked, "What happened?"

"She broke my snakes just after the other one, Tadashi, died from poison." He answered.

Tsukiko pointed a finger at him, "This is all because of you! All of you!" She then pointed an accusing pointer at a still unconscious Kakashi. "But especially this monster! He started all this, so why do you let him live?"

Her father put a hand on her shoulder. "I have so much explaining to do. But please, let this go. There's nothing more you can do. I'm not dead, the main reason this all started."

But his words bounced off like she was surrounded by soundproof walls. "If only I had known... My brother would still be alive! And this time Kakashi really did do it himself! He poisoned him!"

"As he said, he came in to poison Kakashi but out of self defence, he turned the syringe around on him." Sai cut in.

"Shut up!" She snapped. "And because of you, I had to add to the poison so that I could end his suffering!"

Everyone looked over to Sai who remained completely passive. "I allowed you the chance to administer an antidote. What you did to him was nothing under my control."

Tears were running down her eyes. Then she shakily readied a knife and held it high over her head. "I hope you all die slow and painfully..."

There was complete insanity in her eyes, Sakura realized, the insanity needed to kill.


	20. The True Definition of Psychopath

_There was complete insanity in her eyes, Sakura realized, the insanity needed to kill._

Before anyone could restrain her, she threw the knife, where it just barely missed being imbedded, but left a long and deep gash running from one shoulder blade to the next. Kakashi did absolutelt nothing as the dis colored blood started to raise up and run from his new wound.

Tsunade was quickest to react, slamming Tsukiko in the jaw before rushing over to heal him. Just after the mental case of a woman was knocked back into a tree, Yamato took the chance to manipulate the wood and trap her with it. Her wrists pinned down to the trunk.

Of course, even trapped, she didn't stop. "Hidden Jutsu: Poison Fog!" Then her breath came out as thick, dark gas. As everyone retreated from the gas, there was a loud _snap_. Sakura, at the end of the group, turned as Tsukiko came ludging from her poison gas at them with needles between her fingers and the knife in her teeth. With almost deadly accuracy, she threw the small projectiles at them and attempted to attack Sakura, who blocked it and sent a punch of her own. The woman went flying before she summoned a bird midair to stand on.

Sai was quicker than her eyes could follow as he drew a bird and summoned it from the page. Then he was airborne as well. And for a long second, Sakura watched the ink bird and the giant raptor swooping and diving through the air. Then she continued to follow Tsunade, who had Kakashi on her back, the old man, and Yamato, who was starting to fall behind. But when she tried to help him, he nudged her off and looked back up.

Even from the ground, they could see the needles catching sunlight and a massive asortment of ink creatures flying at the two. What they couldn't see was the dozen needles sticking out of Sai's skin and the knife lodged in his leg. Without knowing that, Yamato joined the fight, forcing the ground up high so he could throw shards of wood at Tsukiko.

He smirked as one long spike imbedded itself into the bird's wing. Tsukiko took the chance to throw another dagger at him as the bird started to fall. He easily blocked it with a shunk of wood.

This madwoman's summon vanished in a puff of smoke, and she started to fall down towards the trees. Before she hit the ground, she pulled out a pair of kunai and threw them opposite ways. A string was tied to the ends, so when they lodged into the bark, they left a small tightrope for her to balance on. "Go ahead an try getting me!"

"She's long ranged," Sai noted. "but maybe if we can knock her off that rope, then we can capture her."

Yamato nodded, already ahead of him. He forced the kunai out of the bark of the tree with his wood style and she was falling again. "Alright, let's hurry before she can get away." He then jumped onto Sai's bird and they came diving down through the treeline to the ground. When they landed, they found heron her hands and knees, shuttering with tears running down her eyes.

"I do believe you have no where to run," Sai noted, walking towards her.

She looked at him with wide eyes before pulling out another knife. "Stay away from me! Just stay away!"

"Pull it down," Yamato reasoned, "you know you've lost."

With that, Tsukiko started laugh in some psychopathic sort of way before angling it at her own body. "You idiots. What's the point of living when it's all a lie? I've made my mark on all of you, now we all die!" And she shoved the blade deep into her stomach before painfully dragging it across with some sort of sickly smile wide on her bloodied teeth.

Sai and Yamato both just watched as she simply gutted herself, and laid there dying with hot blood spreading on the grass around her. Slowly, her breathing stopped and she let loose one brief gurgle as she died. Neither one were phased by her suicide.

"In the end, she had truly lost her mind," Yamato commented to himself as they walked away from the body. He then glanced over at Sai, who was limping now, a hand on his leg wound. "We should hurry back."

"Captain Yamato, what did she mean when she said that she made her mark on us?" Sai asked.

Yamato wounded as his hand, while running over his numbing arm, found a barbed needle. "We really need to hurry back..."


	21. Out of the Frying Pan

Kakashi dully opened his solumn eyes as he watched trees rush past. And what the hell was he pressing his face against anyways? It felt really, REALLY warm. Chancing a glance up, he found himself staring up at Tsunade's jaw, and he let his gaze turn back down to the surrounds that quickly were left behind them. Sakura was just behind them with some old man... oh wait... that old man was trying to help him with the jutsu... How'd that turn out anyways? He remembered a lot of pain and bright light but then the rest was a blank. So was he healed then?

With a short glance to his shoulder, where he saw his veins still extremely dark, he came to the conclusion that whatever did happen, he most certainly was not rid of the poison yet. So did that mean the old man just stopped? "Wha'appen'd...?" He slurred.

"We're almost to the village, it's almost over now." Tsunade answered sternly without even looking down at him. His guess was that it was because he was riding on her back, and she was jumping over branches and couldn't spare the effort of looking at him and trying to land blindly.

"Lady Tsunade?" Sakura said from behind, "What about Captain Yamato and Sai? Are you sure they can handle that woman?"

He heard her sigh and respond. "I have full confidence in their abilities. Their only concern should be capturing her without harming her."

"Hey! Wait up!"

He almost smiled to himself. Of course Tenzō was alright... And what about Sai? Was he okay? Most likely...

"Where's my daughter?" The old man asked, looking back at them.

Yamato sighed. "She refused to come quietly and when we had her cornered, she decided to take her own life."

"I see..."

Silence hung heavy in the air. And so Kakashi let his eye fall shut once more, letting himself lull back into teh dark for a little while longer.

But he woke up later on to intense pain, and screamed as he found his body was tensing and curling painfully again. His vision was gone in complete white, and he wondered if he had been blinded or something. He couldn't hear anything but that high pitched ringing. His throat closed up on him now, he couldn't breathe.

"We're losing him!" He heard someone shout in the distance.

"Well we can't stop now! The poison hasn't faded yet!" Another argued. Why did everything sound like it was in a tunnel? The distance and the echos were throwing him off.

"The treatment's going to shut him down at any moment," the first argued. "We need to stop so he can have some time to recooperate!"

"We're out of time! The poison's just about spread everywhere! He'll die any moment if we cut the jutsu!"

"He's going to die with it!"

"Shut up and hold him still!" Someone else snapped. "Stop letting him push the poison around, it's going to be harder to-..." At that point he just stopped listening as he found himself surprisingly warm. The pain was subsiding and left him with a heavy numb...

"He's gone..."

-0-0-0-

Yamato whinced as Tsunade continued to heal the wound again. It had in fact reopened and grew worse because of the fighting. And there was still that poison in his arm. She glanced down at his fingertips to see them discolored, which brought her to the conclusion that this poison cut off circulation.

"You need to settle down." She told him, watching the wound slowly closing. "I know that you're worried, but he'll be fine."

"Why aren't you there with him?" Yamato felt he needed to ask. "He needs the best."

"And the best right now is that old man who can cast that jutsu," she answered. "Besides, I have you and Sai to check." Her thoughts briefly went back to Sai. Yamato had carried him on his back, and the younger had fallen unconscious by the time they catch up to them. Right now, Sai and Kakashi were both in intensive care, because like teh latter of the two, Sai was now infected with the same poison. And her guess, based on what Yamato told her, was that the knife Tsukiko used to slash Kakashi's back was the same she used to the stab his leg. But because the balde hadn't been cleaned off, the poison in Kakashi's blood spread to Sai's.

"But I wonder, what if I could have saved her?" He lamented. "I know she was insane by then, but she was just trying to avenge her family. And she was fueled by greif because of her brother's recent death. I don't know if it was the best thing for her to of died like that. And her last worded, 'I have left my mark on all of you'. What does it mean?"

Tsunade sighed and pushed back her bangs. "You know you worry too much, right?" _Still... the words were troubling..._

The door suddenly slid open and she looked back to see a medic with a look of panic on his face. Must be a new guy...

"What is it?" She asked.

He fiddled with his clipboard before saying quickly, "We need you in the operation room, now!"

She nodded and glanced back to Yamato before telling the medic, "Get someone to see to his wound and the poison in his arm. Which operation room should I go to?"

"Room 3," the medic answered before rushing off to find someone to tend to Yamato. Tsunade knew that Kakashi was in that room.

-0-0-0-

Sakura was drawing poison out of her leg while Naruto watched with worry. By the time she had returned, he was awake and spotted the needle. Sure enough, there was poison. And she also had yet to explain to him that both Kakashi and Sai were in intensive care at the moment. It seemed like the former kept getting stuck there a lot anyways.

"Where's Kakashi-Sensei? And Captain Yamato?" Naruto asked, of course, he wasn't told anything about the situation at the moment at all...

She sighed heavily and finished drawing out the last of the poison before dousing the wound with a bit of peroxide. After some examination, she came to the conclusion that the poison on the needles was a bacterial infection rather than a real poison. And though it was harsh and potentially deadly, she knew hydrogen peroxide was able to kill bacterial, and so was able to completely rid Naruto of the poison. Hissing, Sakura watched as white bubbles startled to form and repeatedly pop.

"Yamato's with Lady Tsunade right now," she answered. "And Kakashi... he's in intensive care right now... along with Sai."

Naruto seemed surprised about that last part. "Sai too?"

Sakura nodded slowly, growing used to the harsh sting as the peroxide was starting to fizzle less and less. "He had a bunch of poison needles. And he was also stabbed in the leg and somehow got the same poison that Kakashi-Sensei's been fighting." She almost shivered when she remembered how his skin was completely covered in those black lines where his veins were running black from the poison.

"And Captain Yamato? How's he?"

"Poisoned, but alive." She answered. "I need to see him soon so I can treat it. And I'm hoping to see Sai as well for the same reason."

"It's all the same poison then?" Naruto asked.

"No, two actually," she explained. "You see the one where the veins turned black was kind of like a toxin, it attacks the blood cells and lungs from what I've seen. Also, when it reaches the brain, it attacks perseptive parts as well as the stem. But no matter how much we extract, it regenerates off of what's left. The other one is more like a bacteria, and the infection can be deadly if left untreated. All of use have been exposed to that one."

Naruto nodded, seeming to understand.

Then the door opened and a medic said, "Sakura Haruno, we need you in operation room 6."

She nodded and stood on her sort of numb leg, the wound had stopped bubbling by now so she knew the poison was gone, before following him to the operation room to see to Sai.


	22. Where We Reach The End

It was early next morning when the extensive treatment finally came to a close. And with it came the death of the old man, who gave the last of his chakra to revive Kakashi.

Tsunade sat heavily in one of the chairs, half awake while Sakura was just dressing Sai's leg wound. In the back of her mind, she wondered what would have happened if things went just a little differently? And did she even make remotely good choices?

_What if I kept Naruto around here,_ she asked herself. That seemed in her mind a disaster waiting to happen. If she knew Naruto, then he might just start yelling at Kakashi to wake up while said man would probably panic. _Or what if Kakashi told us sooner about the poison,_ that popped up like a swarm of bees. Maybe we could have treated him sooner and got him a proper antidote, but Tsukiko and Tadashi still would come to ensure their revenge.

It didn't matter anymore, this would all be over soon...

As for Kakashi, the old man did what he could, and that was disable the poison's ability to regenerate so his body could fight it off like any other disease. And Tsunade did her best to exact as much of the poison as she could. If anything, he would just be experiencing those symptoms a little while longer as his body slowly fought off the toxins. But his condition, though needed to be monitored, was not critical anymore.

And Sai? Sakura told her how she treated one of the poisons with hydrogen peroxide, and then was able to exact the other poison from the wound, as it hadn't spread very far. Aside from some small puncture wounds, he only had the gash on his leg to worry about along with those same symptoms.

"Lady Tsunade?"

She looked up and nodded. "Yes Sakura?"

"When will Kakashi-Sensei and Sai be able to leave the hospital?" She asked.

"We'll see how they're feeling next week," she decided, "if by then they are in good shape, then I'll let them go."

Sakura nodded and stood up from the cot. "This has been some ordeal..."

"It has..." Tsunade agreed. "Get some rest, I'll see you later."

The younger smiled gratefully and walked out of the room.

-0-0-0-

Kakashi groaned heavily as he stared up at Yamato.

"Get off of me, please."

With both Yamato and Naruto given the all clear, they only had Sai and Kakashi left now. And right now, the hospital room was crowded as all five were there (Sakura's there, of course), it be came an issue to find a seat. Naruto had laid claim to the extra chair next to Sakura, so Yamato decided to sit on Kakashi's cot. Which, in the process, he ended up sitting on the older's leg.

"Problem, Senpai?" He said, a little too cheerfully for it to be a normal thing for him. But hey, he was out of the hospital and Kakashi was sane again. Why shouldn't he be in a good mood?

Of course, Kakashi would have none of it and tugged his leg out before continuing to read his book, which he had been using as of late to hide his still bare face. No one had even bothered to walk down the street to his apartment to get one of his shirts, so he was resorting to all sorts of means to cover himself. So the most Naruto could see at the moment was anything form the cheekbones up.

"Did the nurse say when you two could leave?" Naruto ask.

Sai smiled. "I think she mentioned maybe this Saturday, but that's if the fever clears up first."

Alright, so they weren't one hundred percent yet, right now they both had some bad fever, but they were acting like themselves again at least.

"I still can't believe any of that actually happened..." Sakura sighed.

"Well, we're all alive," Naruto said optimistically, "and we'll all be back in gear soon."

Kakashi hummed his response and flipped to the next page. He realized a few hours ago that he already read this same volume of Itcha Itcha Paradise maybe six times, but he didn't see any new ones either. Oh well... at least it was the one with the interesting plot twist, reading Miko's reaction to the news never seems to get old.

His reading was interrupted by Naruto being punched into the wall and Sakura fixing her glove. Now if it didn't mean showing everyone his face, he would put the book down to facepalm. But it seemed too much a pain to move his arm, his shoulder still was healing from that last wound. "Are you two always this violence in hospitals?"

Sakura smiled a little too widely and laughed while Naruto was simply rubbing his head. Oh right, that's what he'd have to put up with all the time after he got himself out of here. Again... Oh well then...

**Yeah... sorry about that disappointing end there. But that's as best as I can do when it comes to wrapping this fic up.**

**I'd like to say thanks for all the reviews, it's been a lot of motivation for me to keep writing. Sometimes your questions and speculations pushed me to explain why I wrote some things while others seemed to give me reason to express a point I made a little harder.**

**I'd like to say to some of you, try and keep an open mind when you read a story. I know it seems sometimes like a character is all bad or mary-sueish but you need to think about their thoughts. What I've seen is that Tsukiko and Tadashi were very much disliked because of the poisoning of Kakashi. However, I was unable to make specific points besides subtle hints or characters explaining something. I didn't want to write this until now, but both are just very misguided. And their father was really the one who messed up, but tried to make up for it in the end.  
**

**Anyways, I'm glad you guys liked the story, I'll write a new one soon.**

**~Dis**


End file.
